Water's October, Right?: House Fanfiction Discussion

MO I think that's a quote formatting problem we are having with the forum. It's like the forum suddenly veers to the right like it's seen a cat on a highway. As I always say. A slight tilt to the right is okay, but if you lean too far you might fall over. ... As all is fixed - topics. Come on list them. Sometimes it seems we can't think outside the box. Car accident = unrequited love, etc... As a non medical writer I wonder - how far can you take House and make him seem... House.

I'm not a writer so my humble opinion doesn't count but I find this whole thread extremely fascinating. I'm spending a whole lot of time lurking here. Also just want to generally say thanks to all of the writer people. I get a lot of pleasure from your stories. Oh so wrong about not counting! You, the dedicated reader, are the person we writers treasure most, and whose opinion we court. Soooo...do you accept bribes? (offers cheese and cookies...okay, cheese is weird, but I like it. /defensiveness over cheese) ETA: Okay, don't want to double-post, so I'll edit in an answer to DIYsheep. How far can we take House and still keep him House? I'll go ahead and show my own approach. House may feel any number of things (Hugh's oh-so-expressive face!), but he says almost nothing about serious deep subjects--he's very clipped and brief when pushed to say something personal. So if he (or God forbid, Chase) suddenly exposits for two paragraphs about how he REALLY, TRULY, DEEPLY feels, then it'll seem OOC to me, even if the inner thoughts are valid. So my approach to House is: Think Lots, Say Little Unless Snarking.

I often find myself worrying whether or not my characters are IC. That's actually what I probably bug my beta, fluffy, about the most.

House may feel any number of things (Hugh's oh-so-expressive face!), but he says almost nothing about serious deep subjects--he's very clipped and brief when pushed to say something personal. So if he (or God forbid, Chase) suddenly exposits for two paragraphs about how he REALLY, TRULY, DEEPLY feels, then it'll seem OOC to me, even if the inner thoughts are valid. WORD. One of the things I struggle with is when one character wants to express their feelings in my fic, or if I want extreme emotion. If I find House is getting too 'gushy', I usually hit the delete button and replace it with something that sounds cranky. Or sometimes he avoids the situation entirely. One of my favorite characters is Cuddy, so naturally I like to make her miserable in the fics I write. During one fic I had her miscarry, and House wanted to do something but he didn't want to show that he cared. So he made her a card and signed Wilson's name to it. (I don't know if that's IC or not; House can be such a puzzle sometimes!) In another, Cuddy dies of cancer. I really wasn't sure how he'd grieve in that situation. (You have to keep in mind I'm a Huddy kind of a girl.) So I had the main character of my story observe that he was silent and the knuckles of the hand that were clutching the cane were white. I'm sure many would argue that my House isn't IC, but it seemed right to me. ::Shrug::

House may feel any number of things (Hugh's oh-so-expressive face!), but he says almost nothing about serious deep subjects--he's very clipped and brief when pushed to say something personal. So my approach to House is: Think Lots, Say Little Unless Snarking. Yes! When he's hit with a personal question, even from Wilson sometimes, he turns the question on the questioner, either criticizing the question itself or the person's reason for asking. Introspection, for House, isn't something to be done in the company of other people. House says a lot through what he does, too. So, when I try to write him, I try to focus on significant actions, which, of course, can be really, really simple things when it comes to him.

Bribes huh? Cheese is good, beer is better. On what turns me off about stories - Summaries that give the whole thing away - usually pass on those stories, summaries with words not spelled correctly or not used correctly - I'm not talking here about tenses or anything like that but things like one I ran across today that used defiant for definite - things like that are a real turn off for me. Anything HAM for me is a big turn off. The only HAM I've read all the way through is Five Years plus am reading the sequel as it's posted. I'll read AU, angst, comedy, MST, anything; but my primary focus is on House and Wilson, their interactions and how that "screwed up friendship" works. I read slash, friendship, all of that. The other characters - Foreman, Chase or Cameron are definitely secondary for me and any kind of Mary Sue is something I back out of very quickly. For some writers I I'll read anything they post, with others I'm a little more selective but will at least take a look. I have read some OOC things and enjoyed them for what they were but I really like staying as much IC as can be done igiven the constraints of a particular story. Some don't even try to pretend to being IC and I've enjoyed some of those quite a bit for what they are. I do "first reader" stuff for Kidsnurse when she is writing because she asked. Have also occasionally looked over other writers stuff but tend to stay away from first time writers because I have a very strong tendency to say what I think, sometimes not so politely and because I don't want to scare anyone off of trying their hand at writing. I really ramble with my comments and that puts some people off so unless I'm asked I generally don't say much in comments. Didn't mean to get so long winded. This post has gotten entirely to long and anyway I have to go feed the ones who run this house, the dogs.

"Jeez, CL, way to go! *eyeroll*" Eep! Sorry! I promise not to abuse html again. Topic...: Um, I've never actually got any concrit, just typo correction, which of course is appreciated. Is it worth it to ask for concrit from readers, or just hope for the best? I'm almost afraid to ask, except from my beta reader (Starlingthefool) because I know that while she's merciless, she's usually kind.

I'm almost afraid to ask, except from my beta reader (Starlingthefool) because I know that while she's merciless, she's usually kind. I wouldn't be afraid to ask, especially if you feel you really want it. Most people who give concrit are kind. They're direct, but they're not mean. (And Starling's great, isn't she? She's my beta reader, too. :) )

All right, so at the risk of spamming the board with my questions, I'm still vexed about summaries. Would anyone care to share an example or two of ones that they feel are very good? I can't help thinking that the one I use for my current WIP is a little under par, and I've tried variations, but can't seem to get it right. Boo. :?

you can always use one name to write and another name to post. Which would be exactly what I do, heh. On LJ, the only place my writing is, I'm l57371. See, you're braver than me. I've "outed" myself to only 3 people, one of whom doesn't even read fan fic! LOL :batman:

Shutterbug, IMO everyone has slightly different expectations from summaries. I obviously want the basics, pair, character, rating, warnings but I want some sense of the tone & direction of the fic if I can get it. I think this one is great, by fourteencandle for her fic "A Smaller World". Its one sentence, but it's intriguing & when you've finished the fic it makes perfect sense. http://fourteencandles.livejournal.com/95607.html And incidentally, if anyone who loves H/W hasn't read this, I rec you do so immediately, I can't speak highly enough of this fic.

You know what else annoys me about fanfic? When people put your story on alert or favourite it but aren't curteous enough to review. That kind of gtes to me a little bit.

WORD. One of the things I struggle with is when one character wants to express their feelings in my fic, or if I want extreme emotion. If I find House is getting too 'gushy', I usually hit the delete button and replace it with something that sounds cranky. Or sometimes he avoids the situation entirely. One of my favorite characters is Cuddy, so naturally I like to make her miserable in the fics I write. During one fic I had her miscarry, and House wanted to do something but he didn't want to show that he cared. So he made her a card and signed Wilson's name to it. (I don't know if that's IC or not; House can be such a puzzle sometimes!) In another, Cuddy dies of cancer. I really wasn't sure how he'd grieve in that situation. (You have to keep in mind I'm a Huddy kind of a girl.) So I had the main character of my story observe that he was silent and the knuckles of the hand that were clutching the cane were white. Hi, I hope you don't mind me asking about this and I hope it's okay to ask about it on this thread and that I'm not going against protocol or anything like that, but could I have a link to your fics? I've been in the mood for some Cuddy centered fics recently and both of those sound interesting. (btw, as someone who only reads fanfiction but never writes it this is a really interesting thread to read)

You know what else annoys me about fanfic? When people put your story on alert or favourite it but aren't curteous enough to review. That kind of gtes to me a little bit. Heck, I've had people who mark the story as a "favorite" and don't review. On a couple of stories, I've got more "favorites" markings than reviews, period. I've got a different question -- length. (Get your minds out of the gutter. I'm talking about the number of words here.) Sometimes its easy to tell when a story should be broken into chapters just because there are easily defined elements. "Tracking Time," for instance, was divided for the most part by years. "Family, Friends ..." was divided by incidents. But I've had one-shots that have run well in excess of 10,000 words, and I always wonder from a reader's perspective if it helps to split that story into chapters if there are places where it could be done. Does 10-15,000 words seem to be too much all in one block? Does it help to break it up?

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