meme from rodlox

[scarfman]

"Give me the title of a story I've never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got posted, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I'd been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know."

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Should that "never" be an "ever" perchance?

[scarfman]

No; the exercise is meant to be that you make up a title and a detail or three about an imaginary story of mine, and then I tell you more imaginary things about it.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh. Seems to me it'd be a more interesting exercise if it was about real fics. Guess I've had an imagination failure today.

[scarfman]

You know what, if that's what you'd like to do I'll answer.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. I'll have to go and look at your fics again and you know *pick* one! Thanks...

[fisher-queen.livejournal.com]

Title: As Lovers Go

Comment: I really loved your characterization of Rader and Uhura in this fic and your Henry Blake is, as always excellent. And I love the scene with McCoy and Frank!

Um...have fun with that? :D

[scarfman]

Rader and Uhura

Yeah - I originally wanted to use that plot twist in a T*TR*E*K story based on the new movie, but I haven't quite figured out how the new movie fits into T*R*E*K - and, anyway, in T*R*E*K Radar is Uhura, sortof. This was better.

your Henry Blake

Thanks. This was the first time I've written enything with Henry Blake in it (longer than four panels or a T*R*E*K scene) since 1976.

McCoy and Frank

Well, it's not like I could resist putting them in a room together, or Hawkeye and Spock.

[billfl.livejournal.com]

Title: Petals

Comment: I'm a sucker for a good time travel/AH story, and this was a good one. I especially liked where it (finally!) dawns on BJ that his work hasn't just saved lives, it's going to help save the future of mankind. And the wxcellent unexpected cameo at the end made me laugh!

[scarfman]

good time travel/AH story

Well, it's sort of my take on Father's Day, but reversed.

going to help save the future of mankind

Of course my first thought was to give the plot to Hawkeye, but I really don't think he's introspective enough for my purposes. And has no known offspring.

And the wxcellent unexpected cameo at the end made me laugh!

Unfortunately a character Mike Farrell played in 1974 would be about fifteen years too old to be Erin's younger brother ... but that meant I could use him here.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Title: Yesterday's Jam

I thought your use of multiple past companions in this was was really nice. Sandwiched between Sarah Jane and Romana like she is, everyone seems to forget about Leela; it was great to see someone use her, and not just as cheap leather-swimsuit cheesecake. The poignant moment between Adric and Captain Jack managed to be a tearjerker (for me, at least, but I have a soft spot for characters like Adric) without being maudlin, and I thought the Doctor's response for them was really in-character and still surprised the hell out of me. And the Brigadier ordering Jack around - and him shutting up and following orders for once! - was five kinds of awesome.

I'm still not quite sure what happened to the TARDIS at the end, but maybe there'll be a sequel? Please?

[scarfman]

everyone seems to forget about Leela

I've always said that the best companion for the Doctor is someone to provide the brawn to back up his brains.

The poignant moment between Adric and Captain Jack

That comes back to the same sort of thing; Adric's problem, in-text and out-text, was always that he was too much like the Doctor inside; where Jack's similarities to the Doctor are more external, even acquired, traits.

shutting up and following orders for once

Well, Jack's not a total moron. He knows how to pick his battles.

I'm still not quite sure what happened to the TARDIS at the end, but maybe there'll be a sequel?

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear: It came out the other end, that's what Katerina's allusion to hula hoops was about. I'll edit.

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

Personally, my favorite part of Hawkeye Pierce has gone bamboo was when Hawkeye's wife jokingly (and with great fondness) quotes the 4th Doctor about Hawkeye (Leela in the ep) being a savage.
(and don't worry about those critics who say she couldn't quote what may or may not have aired in that time or 'verse - the story stands on its own merits)

But what is your favorite passage from Hawkeye Pierce has gone bamboo?

(or if you'd rather, what did you edit out that, after posting the fic, do you wish you'd left in it?)

[scarfman]

I can't reprint a passage that I left out, because I don't keep drafts since word processing.

One of my favorite passages in it is the passage you cite, because if Hawkeye and Radar could allude to Godzilla movies during the Korean War then Mary can allude to Tom Baker Doctor Who during the Watergate scandal. Seriously, it's not as if I could have left that dialog out of the story once it had occurred to me, is it?

But I don't think I have a favoritest-passage-of-all, because my favorite thing about the story (more even than the retcon I wrote the story to be a polemic for) is the scattering of throwaway lines in it that establish that the story is set in a variation of the universe in which William E. Butterworth's sequels are set, except as if they were sequels to the tv series instead of to Hooker's novels: the Finestkind Clinic being established by Hawkeye, Trapper John, B.J. and Charles instead of by Hawkeye, Trapper John, Duke and Spearchucker; Potter being their contact at Walter Reed instead of Henry; and so forth. Probably an alternate universe from the one(s) where AfterM*A*S*H and Trapper John, M.D. are set, though I bet I could work them back in if I tried.

[cmattg.livejournal.com]

Title: Burning Bright

This really made me a fan of Dawn/Rachel.

Ummmm...aside from that, most of what I remember is the flaming over whether "Second cousin from a possible future that no longer exists because her mother is dead in the present" counts as incest, and if Summer Glau would look good with a buzzcut and rat-tail.

Oh, and in the last scene, I could definitely see Sarah Michelle Gellar and James Marsden in my head. Definitely a keeper.

[scarfman]

The great thing about Spike is he's fun to write dialog for. I haven't had any chances lately and I've missed it.

I never wrote femmeslash before and I only once before created an original character who lasted more'n one story, so I'm glad I pulled it off. And, while I see Glau as Rachel, I wondered what the odds were that anyone else would, even given her whedonesque association.

[cmattg.livejournal.com]

Errr, oops?

Rachel Summers.

James Marsden.

Sorry, my fault for being so elliptical. Also, on reflection I'm not sure you've ever done an X-men crossover, so I should have asked. My bad.

[scarfman]

No, my fault, at least partially. I do know the difference between Marsters and Marsden - the latter was also in Superman Returns which I loved a lot. That being said, I do confess that the allusions to Days of Future Past would still likely have meant nothing to me, even if I'd not misread Marsden's name; for I'm a DC, not a Marvel. But you did nothing wrong - the bloody meme is an exercise in ellipticalness ellipticality You did nothing wrong.