Hooray for Tackling Plot Bunnies of Doom!

[kriadydragon]

I finally, finally tackled a plot I've been working on for ages. And, really, why was it so hard? I'm agonizing over this thing for months, finally figure it out then get it done in one day. Although I think half the problem was A: trying to make it poignant when all it wanted to be was a fun little caper and B: wrestling with the POV. I wanted to use Neal's POV, the story wanted Peter's.

I'm also starting to suspect that when it comes to writing White Collar I'm more drawn to the fun capers than the angsty whump. Don't get me wrong, I love me some angsty whump, but I seem more motivated to write more light hearted fic where White Collar is concerned.

Which has gotten me to think a lot about how different fandoms affect my writing desires. I may have touched on this before, but I can never bring myself to whump Neal as badly as I whumped Sheppard. which, I believe, is what drew me into writing fanfic for Merlin, because for some reason I can whump Merlin like I whumped Sheppard. And it makes me wonder what about one character makes them so easy to whump and what about another character makes it so difficult.

Although with Neal I think that, for me, it's a matter of not wanting to put him through anything that would change him. It's probably just how I view them but to me Sheppard is a lot more resilient than Neal. That is, if Neal were put through horrible torture, it wouldn't necessarily turn him into a blubbering mess or anything, but I think it would definitely inspire him to rethink his life. Where as with Sheppard, it would probably motivate him even more to protect his people.

I don't know. All I do know is that I have limits when it comes to whumping Neal that I didn't used to have.

Comments

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

they're guys who've chosen a violent path in life, and while they can certainly still be traumatized, violence is the norm for them and injuries, even terrible injuries, have to be something they know is a potential all the time. But Neal, even with his years as a criminal and going to prison, isn't somebody who's ever going to see violence or injury as same-shit-different-day.

Very good point, especially since in both shows (SGA and SPN) torture and whump pretty much is canon. We've seen the characters put through the wringer and come out the other side, and we know what they are like afterwards, what they can and can't handle. But with WC, whump, even minor whump, is pretty rare, so it's a little bit harder to know what Neal might be like if he was put through something traumatic such as torture.

And I think that's why I find characters in shows with major whump easier to majorly whump. That could also be why sick!fic and angst is so popular in WC - it's major whump (or can be) but not the kind of whump that runs the risk of drastically changing Neal.

And feel free to blather away :D I love having discussions like this :D

[embroiderama]

Cool. :)

We've seen the characters put through the wringer and come out the other side, and we know what they are like afterwards, what they can and can't handle.

Yeah, exactly. I wrote a story a long time ago in which Dean Winchester took a pretty serious beating in a non-hunting situation in order to save a regular guy from being beat up, and in my head he'd do that easily because while that beating probably would've changed that other guy's life or at least been seriously traumatic, for Dean it was just pain. It didn't change his view of the world or himself, and pain is something he can move on from. But Neal, he's a lot more like the regular guy in that scenario.

Really, both kinds of guys are fun to whump, just in different ways.