Words, Words, Words

So. The theme for the second week of WIAD was diary entries; Team Weevil's had to center around an event from Season Two (The added feature, this go-around, was "weather.")

I immediately had a brilliant idea involving Captain John. And then I watched Exit Wounds, and got Jossed. Hard. (I also had a really hard time writing after that -- I think I was too busy grieving. Anyway.) After that, I had another good idea, about Ianto's father. Unfortunately, it didn't fit the prompt in any way, shape or form, so I had to scrap it. Still might write that one, though.

This was Idea Three. I like it well enough. Martha's a fun character, and I like her voice. It's not as elegant as it could have been, but obviously it got me through, so there you are. I'd like it better, though, if it weren't for Idea Four, which came to me two days after voting started. It's a brilliant idea, though.

Anyway. Story time.

Title: Martha Jones's Diary
Author: lookninjas
Rating: Barely PG, if that. She's from Doctor Who, you know.
Spoilers: DW series 3, TW series 2, through beginning of "Reset."

Summary: Martha gets to see that team of Jack's for the first time.

( 9 April 2009 )

(For the record: I did toy with the idea of really lifting from Bridget Jones' Diary and giving a little header that said things like "Aliens Dissected: None so far. Times Had to Run For Life: Twice, once when Owen fired off that alien gizmo, once when pterodactyl wanted me to play fetch." But that seemed a bit over the top to me, and out of character for Martha, so I held off on it.)

Week Three's theme was super powers -- mental for Team Pterodactyl, physical for Team Weevil (added element: A book.) I was thrilled; I grew up on comic books, so this was going to be easy. I already knew what I wanted to do: a riff on what happened to Kitty Pryde after the Morlock Massacre, when intangibility became her natural state and staying solid became a struggle for her, with Tosh as my Shadowcat. Easy. Right?

Heh.

The thing is, when you grow up reading nothing but origin stories, you want your first go at the genre to be perfect in every way. And that just wasn't happening for me. I'd write two paragraphs, delete them, write two new paragraphs, delete them... repeat this for a while, decide that my first version was the best one, revert back to that only to realize it was terrible and I was clearly delusional, write, delete, write, delete... I did this for two days solid, until I realized that time was running out and I had to just stick with something, or default out of the competition.

I was so frustrated that defaulting began to seem like a viable option.

But dammit, a woman has her pride. So I sat down one last time, and came out with a story that, although not perfect, was still pretty good. And I got some good reviews, and I made it through another round. I still have mixed emotions, though. Objectively speaking, it's a good, solid story. There's a lot that I like about it. On the other hand, it's always going to remind me of how frustrated I was that week, so I kind of can't like it, even though I know I should.

Title: Shadow
Author: lookninjas
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Uncanny X-Men #129

Summary: If she doesn't concentrate, she'll fall forever.

( Tosh, are you sure there's something here? )

So. Week three sucked. I almost defaulted. I hated my story. Although I made it through with some positive reviews, I was nervous as hell about the next round.

Then I saw the theme. Team Weevil was given a list of West Wing episode titles. The challenge? Use one of the titles as the title and basis for a story of your own. (Added element: A coin.) I clicked the link, and damn near squealed. So many good titles. So little time.

I grabbed a notebook and jotted down every title that stood out to me. It was not at all a short list. Then I pondered. "He Shall, From Time to Time," really spoke to me. I loved "Freedonia," because how often do you get to riff on the Marx Brothers? "On the Day Before" would be perfect for an "Exit Wounds" fic...

But I kept coming back to "The Fall's Gonna Kill You." I am, when all is said and done, a Jack/Ianto shipper, and the title just fit so well. The story itself came out very naturally, with a minimum of fuss and fighting. When it was all done with, I sat back and knew that no matter what, I was proud of this one.

It was a good feeling. And then I won, and that was even better!

The story itself wasn't universally loved; I actually had two negative votes on it, which wasn't much of a surprise. Rather than writing one single story, I wrote five loosely-connected drabbles, and that's not going to work for everyone. I'm still happy with it, though.

And I'm happy to have immunity. Immunity is nice.

Title: The Fall's Gonna Kill You
Author: lookninjas
Rating: PG-13, for language
Spoilers: "Fragments"

Summary: He could still break his own fall.

( One moment, Jack was clinging to the pterodactyl's leg )

Note: The movie mentioned at the end is, of course, Singin' in the Rain