Earworm

[flemmings]

My bunnies were brought a Fisher-Price toy from Israel that sings and talks and flashes and whistles as all F-P things do, but in Hebrew. Turn it on and it says Ze ha zman le man gimot- Now it's time to sing and play, I believe, in a sickly-sweet school marm voice. I of course heard that as Ze has manly man gemot, which my language-addled head now renders as Ze has (in its possession) manly man. (Japanese Anglo-Saxon verb motsu- Past tense: mochten- Past participle: gemot) No it doesn't. I mean yes it does (Konoe, Waki) but they're not the main couple or even a couple at all. But- Ze has manly man gemot, and I can't get either the line or them out of my head.

Someone on Yuletide asked for Ze fic and I really want to write it because of what Konoe is and because it adds a nice touch to the seme x seme dynamic and because *jeez* the parallels with FB keep hitting me between the eyes: not that I've reached the part in FB where Shigure becomes the right bastard people say he does, nor do I know if their definition of a right bastard is the same as mine, nor do I suspect Shigure of the same kind of right-bastardy as Waki, nor am I sure Waki's right-bastardy is even that exactly. Waki still looks like a remix version of Shigure. He might not if I'd read Love Mode. Doubtless he'd look like someone there. But as it is- kimono-wearing easy-going sake-sipping master of a family residence subordinate to the main house, family with a strange secret to be guarded from outsiders, angsty and unhealthy relationships within the family and its uhh dependents: female characters you think are guys, even- we got 'em. FB redux.

But but but.

There are no new stories under the sun. That's especially true of romance fics. And let's face it: most fanfic is romance fic. The relationship /is/ the story. Plot? A minor detail existing only to allow the characters' emotions to be examined. What can a fic be but same-old same-old dressed in new clothes? The clothes may be stunning, but. (The story that knocked me flat most recently, which was afrai's yuletide JS&MN crossover, did so because the pastiche was perfect and the crossover unexpected and charming. But. Plot? Mh.)

Thus: a Waki/ Konoe fic needs a plot, something else happening to express their characters against because let's face it Waki x Konoe isn't going to happen, and making it happen loses the canon characters. So if I want more of Waki and Konoe... I need to go online and order vol.3, which is better than flailing about in the ignorance of one and a half tanks.

(On a side note: I can't keep FB characters straight. This is another thing that comes of reading translations. If I saw the kanji I might remember who all the infinitely confusable names belonged to.)

(On another note: in a curious coincidence, I'm told Hebrew ze means is, which is what the kanji read as ze means in Chinese: where it's not pronounced ze.)

ETA: I don't normally rec scanlations, for obvious reasons, but if you want a look at the thing they have vol 1 done here and the first chapter of vol 2. Take with a grain of salt. The summary begins "In the weird house of Wakeari". Man's name is Yoshiwara Waki if that's who they mean. No, he's not one of the family. I can't find any Mr. Wakeari (loosely, Mr For a certain reason) at all.

Comments

[mikeneko.livejournal.com]

And let's face it: most fanfic is romance fic. The relationship /is/ the story. Plot? A minor detail existing only to allow the characters' emotions to be examined.

Well, yeah. But why's that a problem? I mean . . . it's a hobby, right? (A mildly pervy one, granted.) I don't mean that in the sense of Hobby < Legitimate, but rather Hobby = Do What You Wanna Do. Y'know, liberation from being salesworthy.

With that in mind, is plot really a necessity? Me-wise, writish-wise, sure. Me-wise, readish-wise, no. (Where "me" = a known plot hoor.) If fanfic producer can pull off sufficient special effects (i.e., style or humor or charm or ecchiness or whatever) to make reading worthwhile over and above the pairing wallow, then plot is nice but not necessary. If someone can't muster much in the way of special effects, then a plot vehicle is necessary to keep the clickie fingers from the back button (if clickie fingers are even a consideration, which they may not be).

If any of this makes any sense at all. /sleepy

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

The problem from me-writer pov is that I don't want to be writing the same story over and over with only the names changed. That's what happens when you write a standard romance story, even if the frills are pure Arlesiennes lace. I can see the ways Waki/ Konoe is exactly like other pairings I've written or know of, and it feels I'm doing a retread one more time.

Also- if writing is aiming at the More factor (more of the manga) then in this case at least plot is necessary because Waki and Konoe only interact when things happen, and against an unrevealed background of past history. A story where they sit and drink sake and talk together won't be about the manga characters because the manga characters don't talk- a major failing point in so many fics, even those based on shoujo. And because Konoe doesn't drink, of course.

[mikeneko.livejournal.com]

O.I.C. This is a problem of the specific (i.e., you-type fanfic) rather than the general (i.e., all fanfic).

So-o, no "My Dinner with André Kanoe" in the offing? Well, you could always hold another plot-lemmings-over-the-cliff-a-thon, y'know? (Which I'd skip. 'Cause I think it's okay to have a random piano fall from the air then change "piano" to something that makes more sense in context later. I find falling pianos funny. Illustrating why I suck at this.)

More to the point, you're right about the chattiness, but it seems that you're overlooking that they're different mediums. Excess dialog/thinkiness sans action is boring in a manga (which is why DN plods so damn much at times), but the opposite is often true with text.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

This is a problem of the specific (i.e., you-type fanfic) rather than the general (i.e., all fanfic).

(bemused) Are you saying that a dislike for same old same old is specific to me? Because I don't know that it is, particularly.

another plot-lemmings-over-the-cliff-a-thon

Errh... a what?

I grant the point about the media being different (that looks wrong: in this context I suppose it must be mediums.) Dialogue is necessary in a fic but still- at least let it be dialogue that's /doing/ something, like dealing with a plot point, and not Deep Heart to Heart Between Friends. I prefer to see people sideways, out the corner of the eye or from the pov of a preferably unreliable narrator, and not face on speaking in declarative sentences.

[mikeneko.livejournal.com]

(bemused) Are you saying that a dislike for same old same old is specific to me?

Nyet. You were saying that same-old is getting to be some sort of quality of your fanfic (rather than all fanfic), which I don't think, but I'll defer to Fanfic Mommy Knows Best. (In this instance. Whether Fanfic Mommy really -does- know best would be a whole n'other topic.)

Errh... a what?

You done it before, y'know? One of those fanfic-woe posts turned into Teletubbies. Somehow. @_@

(that looks wrong: in this context I suppose it must be mediums.)

It has the Web 11 seal of approval for US-ian usage. North of the border your kilometres may vary.

As for the other, yeah, yawnworthy. Exposition out the wazoo, same.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

You were saying that same-old is getting to be some sort of quality of your fanfic

Not exactly. I was saying that I don't *want* to do same-old; and now that I've written most of the Main Themes of relationship fic, any story I can think of reminds me of something I've done before. Hence my turning to the greener pastures of Plot.

But I don't do plot-lemmings myself. It takes qwerty to give me the idea. (sigh)

[kickinpants.livejournal.com]

I didn't know there was a vol.3 already out until you mentioned it. I checked the Kino near me today, but no dice. I'll probably order it too.

If two characters don't normally interact, that seems like a challenge fic, sort of. Like, personally, Kou and Kasai have never talked in the manga, nor Kou and Sanada, but that doesn't stop one from thinking "That would be neat to see" and arranging the pieces together in order for it to fit. Even the FMA story, people tell me, "This wouldn't happen, but it's neat to read."

If you can plan it right, sometimes you don't even have to explain why a situation starts- like you can start the story in the middle, where you want to see it- and then build out from there, throw a line in here to give a reason, a line there to explain why, but not too much exposition to steal the suspense. I personally like stories like that because it makes you think and doesn't give you all the answers. A lot of times, there is a plot flowing underneath, even if you haven't planned everything out beforehand. It just slips in unconsciously as you move the story along. The theme might be simple or it could be layered and complicated, whatever works for you.

And I wouldn't care about having "seen" the story before or not. As long as it's not direct plagarism, we're all good. Some people like to write or read hurt/comfort, so they write h/c scenarious over and over. (In the hospital, in a cabin in the woods, in the woods, at the circus, in the villain's lair...) Sometimes the challenge becomes, how can I write what I want to see but keep it still interesting for *me* to write. Abd that's when you see innovation inside a genre. So, in the end, you can say, Yes, it's a h/c story, but one that's still interesting to read.

If there's something that you really want to see, then I would just go for it, and bother with the legistics later, if you want to bother with them at all. If we worry too much about what's been done before or so-and-so would never talk to so-and-so, then we're just shutting ourselves off before we even try. I mean, I wrote Shien blind, and it's debated that he's not blind at all. But I still like those stories, and if I wrote more, I would probably still make him blind because it adds interesting layers. Sometimes to okay to turn off the internal fic-bitch that gnashes and nitpicks, and just do what you want. A lot ot times you never know what's going to come out anyways. Might as well not stop up the faucet before you turn it on.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

And I wouldn't care about having "seen" the story before or not

I would. ^_^ I don't want to be a one-trick pony. It's depressing. Same stories over and over again, when the blessed few can manage the breath-taking 'I'd never *thought* of that' without trying. At this point I find it equally depressing to wiggle about within the confines of a genre or style. 'It's been done a million times, how can I make it new and interesting?' still means that the walls are there and you're still doing your prison yard marches inside them. It's no great virtue to say 'Yes but *I* walk /diagonally/ across the yard, not round and round like everyone else.'

As you know, Waki and Konoe do talk to each other. If it wasn't for Konoe we'd have nothing of Waki's back story: but there Konoe is, needle needle at his Onlie Begetter. Why he needles is another question that I hope v3 will give some answers to. V.2 was a bit too much with the love plot for my tastes. :-)

But you know who Konoe makes me think of? Zheng He. Yeah, the eunuch admiral of the imperial fleet. Who wasn't even Chinese. He was a Mongol, taken captive when the last Mongol city was destroyed and the defenders massacred. The boys in the city were castrated- an agonizing operation the way the Chinese do it- and Zheng He was one of them. He became the closest adviser and loyal servant of the man who'd conquered his city and killed his people. No Angsty McAngstypants he; or anyone's 'kawaii ningyou'.