Looking At Past Work...

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I am amazed to take note of the years that have passed since I first encountered this thing called Fan Fiction.  I had never heard of it before I began scouring the internet for anything related to MFU after I devoured the DVD collection during a marathon of late night viewing.

I was amazed when I discovered the genre, surprised at how good so much of it was, and is.  The idea of writing myself was only after weeks of reading all that I could find, and realizing that I might have a few stories to tell.
Here it is then, nine years later, and I'm still amazed that I can craft a story of reasonably good quality.  That bonus of writing about characters that are already fleshed out for me certainly has made it easier, especially since I took the route of staying very close to the TV version. I like canon, I like these guys just the way I saw them back in the 60's.

So, what I'm thinking of today is how often any of us revisit past works.  I know that when I get a notice of a comment or kudos over on AO3, I sometimes go back to see what I wrote.  I don't think I'm alone in saying that I have forgotten a lot of what I posted over the past years.  Recently, a kudos was left on a story that isn't very old, but didn't immediately register with me.  I was struck, when re-reading it, by a few lines that made me wonder where, or how I came up with them.
This one in particular:

"Mr. Kuryakin, are you with us?" Alexander Waverly recognized the Russian's propensity for drifting into another mental compartment, analyzing his surroundings as the current scenario played out in another portal of awareness.  He was complicated that way.

I'm both pleased and puzzled by these lines.  Do you have snippets like that? Are there lines from a story that you stand back and wonder about? Maybe it's just me, but sometimes I feel as though something must have come over me to write something good, better than I think I'm capable of writing.

Please chime in, I'd love to know what you think.


** The story referenced is In The Lens
*** My first story was posted in June of 2010

Comments

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's been 6 years since I've had the time to write any fanfic but I do go back and read when I receive a review or kudos. I'm still trying to shift and report everything to AO3 so a lot isn't really there yet.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

It's can be surprising how long ago some stories were written. I discovered on line fanfiction after it was mentioned by the BBC 15/16 years ago. But I was primed to notice the mention because I had read Star Trek fanfic closer to 50 years ago, in the days when a few stories would be put together and duplicated, then passed around among friends. And before then I had read the books of Sherlock Holmes stories written by people other than Conan Doyle that had been published in the early 60s.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of fan fiction either till two or three years ago when a series of cultural references led me back to my teenage diaries of the 60s and a long forgotten crush on Illya Kuryakin. Like you, I looked it all up on the internet and found these forums. I had never written fiction myself, just nonfiction and training manuals, so trying it and enjoying it has been enormous fun.

Like you, I forget stories I've written and when I re-read them after seeing a comment, I'm quite surprised by what has emerged from my decaying brain cells. I've never managed to come up with a plot in advance, just the occasional idea. My plots grow as I write - and long may it last!

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I found MFU episodes (for free) on You-Tube many years ago and gobbled them up. Then I went in search of anything MFU and found fan fiction on File 40. After that it was fan fiction.net. Like you I thought I could write some of my own stories.

I first posted a supernatural related story called "Spies that go bump in the night". In the mean time I was working on my epic story 'Beginnings' that explored Illya's background, his family and life during the war. Avery very kindly helped me as I was trying to cram too much into one big story. I slowed down, filled in more and eventually it became a chaptered story.

Of course that's when my friendship began with you Glenna, and your help in my adventures with Illya and Napoleon has been wonderfully invaluable.

It was really well received and one person said they "would have paid money to read it."

Like you, I go back and reread one of my stories when a comment leaves me drawing a blank on the piece. Now with my memory issues, I suspect my writing has been affected style wise. When I read one of my old stories I am shocked...I ask myself, 'you wrote this?' Wow!

Now I'm trying to reread my fics. so see if they'll jump start my muse and get me back to that level of writing.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Very definitely agree. You go back to some stories and go ... "I wrote that?" (referring to a particular line or two) For me, those are usually lines that are surprisingly good (in my opinion, of course!), but every once in a while I go "Wow, that was a clunker. How come I didn't fix that?" I never question my clunkers, but I do occasionally go "Whoa. That was good. Where'd that come from?" :-)

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

When I look at how much less I write now than even three years ago, I know I've really fallen off. I've had a lot of interference it seems.
I hope you'll write something, just a little bit... hey, I know... a Drabble ;) Every Wednesday, right here.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that girls were writing Beatles fan fiction during the 60's. That's not something that went the rounds apparently, I certainly never heard of it. Well, I never heard of any of it.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

It was a totally unknown entity to me, and a surprising discovery when I did finally latch onto it. I have managed to make some big flubs, like forgetting the names of original characters and finding out I'd changed one or two of them several chapters into a story. Is that the fading brain cell syndrome you mentioned?

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Epic is right, that first big story was quite a read. I'm certainly glad that we found each other in our world of spies and stories :D

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Me too! One of these days we've got to meet each other in person before we get too old to do it! ha!

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that is soooooo true!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that we can be surprised but something that is ours, but the words sometimes seem to be self-generating, as though I've had nothing to do with it.
Oh, by the bye... there is a round robin in the works :D.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

It's one manifestation of it. Been there, done that, but I'm a proofreader an editor so I've spotted them before posting - so far...

[ssclassof56.livejournal.com]

Sometimes when I reread a story, I suddenly recall how long I wrestled with the plot or with a bit of dialogue. Our words on the screen don’t often reflect the blood, sweat, and tears it took to get them there. Seeing The Breach If Promise as a now completed work, I marvel that it represents almost two years with a whole lotta family crisis and writer’s block happening. I’m also grateful for these online archives. As I read I realize I would never be able to rewrite and recapture the stories if they were lost.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

That's a nightmarish thought, to lose something. Oh wait, I did lose a story that was supposed to have been on one of the Kuryakin Files. It somehow went askew and it took me several years to find a copy of it hidden on a thumb drive. It was one that I posted only for a brief period of time, then took it down on every site.
And now I am reminded that I need to sit down and take a breath, and read the entire Breach of Promise. That's something for the weekend, thanks for reminding me.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Have kitties, will travel ;)

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

I think writing must come from a different side of the brain from the part that reads. It must be a different bit of personality from the one that does the daily routines.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I can agree with that, I don't have the side that can write. But the reading side works just fine.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Beatles fan fiction during the 60's

Very probably. I also never came across it. But I wouldn't have taken to it, "Real Person Fic" is one of those things that I have never liked. It somehow feels unfair to the people you're making up stories about.

[hypatia-66.livejournal.com]

I entirely agree. Very intrusive.