Today's Post is About Lesbian Vampires

[netgirl_y2k]

I am 200% in favour of lesbian vampires.

No. Today's post is about writing and about my bumbling, baby attempts at writing something original. The reason fitz_y asked me to talk about lesbian vampires is that when I went to visit her in Germany over the summer I woke up one morning and announced "I've got an idea for a novella about lesbian vampires". You know, as one does. And when you're in Berlin, in a heatwave, drinking a beer by the river, chatting up a group of Australian lads about this novel you're writing (still a lesbian, just wanted to know that I could...) you feel like you could write anything, you feel like you could write Crime and fucking Punishment.

The other thing I found super-inspiring about being in Germany was being able to talk to fitz_y and H about writing. Because I generally don't. Not about fanfiction, not out of a sense embarrassment, well, maybe a little out of embarrassment. A few months ago I was watching The Hobbit on DVD with a crowd of folk, and somebody mentioned fanfic, not in a condescending type way, just in a I know this exists type way, and my immediate reaction was: stare into your drink, stare into your drink, don't make eye contact with anybody. And even mentioning that you write original stuff only prompts a bunch of questions, to which nobody is interested in any answer that doesn't end with you being the next JK Rowling and all of us going to live in a house made entirely out of fifty pound notes, so why bother.

Basically, I'm not sure what my family and friends think I'm always doing on my laptop; they either think I play hell of a lot of words with friends, or watch a hell of a lot of porn.

I've always made up stories and written them down. I have a friend, actually, who's a very talented pianist, and who was accepted into a really good music academy after we left school, and he emerged after a year looking like bloody Gollum, and saying he was going to jack it in because having to do it all day every day was ruining the piano for him, it was making him hate this thing which had been a source of great joy in his life. He's in traffic management now. Anyway, aside from the traffic management thing, that's pretty much how I feel about writing.

Anyway, I came back to Scotland with this idea for a group of all female old school vampires (proper Dracula, Carmilla types) failing to negotiate life in modern day Edinburgh. I know Glasgow better, but you can just imagine vampires in Edinburgh, can't you? And it's been a source of great amusement to me to work out the mythology and build up the characters, and I've been having great fun going through sets of writing exercises writing snippets in that universe.

But the other thing I'm learning is that fanfic and original fic are two entirely different skill sets. For one thing you need a plot, and I've spent many years learning to write in the gaps in other people's plots. Not to sound arrogant, but I think I'm a pretty good fanfic writer, and if nothing else I've carved out a niche which suits me, and I feel like I could write decent enough fanfic about the world and characters that I've created -- but there's no overarching plot, nothing coherent tying it together, which was why my attempt to actually write some of it for NaNo faltered on, like, day two.

Hopefully, something will come to me someday, but even if it doesn't, and it just lives in my "snips, snails, and puppy dog tails" folder, then it's still made me happy, and like writing fanfic or playing the piano, if something makes you happy and it doesn't hurt anybody then you should do it.

Comments

[fitz_y]

Basically, I'm not sure what my family and friends think I'm always doing on my laptop; they either think I play hell of a lot of words with friends, or watch a hell of a lot of porn. LOL. Yeah, I've been struggling with the issues of not having a premade plot to fill in, too. It makes it hard.

BUT I REALLY WANT YOU TO WRITE THE LESBIAN VAMPIRES. And I want my full-time job to be the person who hounds you about getting writing done, and does bi-weekly writing group stuff with you. Netgirl, we need a (relaxed, chill, non-micro-managing) patron to just pay both of us to write and entertain them at their soirees. Then life would be nice. Anyway.

I hear you though, about not wanting to make the thing you do for fun the thing you do for work for fear you'd hate it. I went through that with music when I was a teenager, too. I thought about going to conservatory for the double bass and didn't get in, and that ended up being a good thing, I decided. Because playing the bass was what I did to relax.

♥ you so hard, girl.

[kmo]

i'm wholehartedly 1000% supportive of your Lesbian Vampire stories in whatever form they choose to take. novel, novella, short stories, etc. and i applaud you for even taking baby steps toward writing original stuff. i have lots of ideas, even whole plots in my head (mine tend more toward Lesbian Pirates than Lesbian Vampires) but i have never ever tried to set it all down. i always say, "oh next year, I'll do nano" and it never happens. maybe this summer, now that the dissertation is done.

i also live in the fandom closet. i'm actually ok with that. i'm kind of a firm believer in only sharing parts of myself with the people who will appreciate them. and sure, maybe every one i know is a closet fanfiction writer (which would be hilarious) but i'd rather not have people shit on or be dismissive of what i do for fun.

[cleo]

I wholeheartedly support your endeavors.

[ravurian]

Eh, maybe you're looking at the original stuff as too distinct from the fannish stuff*. Why don't you try writing fanfic of your own world? Or a crossover with something fannish, approaching your characters as if they're from an established canon. What I think you'll find is that given enough exercise, they'll grow their own story quite by accident, and quite by themselves. You just have to take them out and about and you'll trip over something. The trick is, I think, in setting up a situation and then breaking it. You're still setting it up.

*Not something I believe I've said before. Interesting.

[st_aurafina]

I also write lesbian vampires! In modern-day Melbourne! It is an extremely satisfying thing to do.

And I'm like you - it's really hard to tell anyone IRL about writing or fandom or anything, because there's (especially in my family) a constant pressure to monetise your hobbies. And honestly, even though I could happily live in a castle made of fifty pound notes, I'm realistic enough to know that's not going to happen without a whole lot of time and effort and I'd rather keep writing my own porn and stashing it under the bed.

Oh, god, the last episode of Dracula killed me. Poor, poor, poor Lucy. My heart was breaking for her.