(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

I have not written anything lately, which is sad. However, this meme I've seen on a lot of people's journals sounds like fun:

I currently have 51 works archived at AO3.

Pick a number from 1 (the most recent) to 51 (the first thing I posted there), and I'll tell you three things I currently like about it.

Perhaps it might even encourage me into writing again....

Comments

[anehan]

45!

[tree_and_leaf]

If I've counted correctly, this is PUSH, the 'evangelical goes to Hogwarts' fic, which was written for the Omniocular "totally not bad fic" challenge (take a premise which has produced a lot of bad fic, and write a good story). I'm still pretty pleased with this one.

1. I really like my OCs. Fr David is possibly a bit of a Mary Sue, but hey, I like him. And I am very fond of both Amy, poor mixed up kid - but she's actually quite smart when she's not being stupidly stubborn -, and of Pusey the obnoxious teenage Anglo-Catholic.

2. I managed to do some fun worldbuilding stuff (and in-jokes) about the wizarding church without it overwhelming the story. My favourite bit to write was actually the church noticeboard.

3. I think I managed to satirise the things I regard as dodgy about a certain kind of conservative Evangelicalism without being a total git about people's sincere struggles. This is partly why Pusey is in the mix, incidentally - I also took the piss out of my own tradition (because otherwise, what with saintly Father David, it would have been a bit triumphalist).

[legionseagle]

With respect to 3. I did notice and really liked that - PUSH is one of my all time favourite Harry Potter stories, and that sort of nuance is why.

ETA Also - because I'm the sort of person who read "How doth the little busy bee" because of Alice, to say nothing of all sort of stuff because fanfic - any chance of a link to any of the fics which inspirec this?

[tree_and_leaf]

Thank you, I take that as a high compliment!

I have no idea if these are the stories I looked at, because it was a while ago, but some examples of the genre:

I haven't read this one all the way through, because as you will see, it's the archetypal thirteen-year-old's bad fic. In which an Evangelical who is allegedly from Manchester (but is obviously from America) goes to Hogwarts and is corrupted. Warnings for poor spelling, general idiocy, and imagined chat with the author's friends at the start of each chapter.

There's only three chapters of this one, and it's obviously abandoned - it finishes just after the protagonist is sorted, but it's actually not bad-fic, though the author is obviously American.

I'm pretty sure/ sincerely hope this one's troll-fic. It also features Draco Malfoy, secret Christian terrorist: So I went to the grave of Finny. I threw her boy out of the coffin for Satanists did not deserve to get a respectable burial. Only a Catholic respect such a burial, and not an Anglican for they are actually Satanist in disguised. And in her disgusting pocket I found a dark green silver key that looked very evil. I covered a blessed cloth over it, and prayed that I can be protected from its evil, and then put it in my pocket. I left her body where it was.

I then went back to the library, but I could not look for anymore information. I stayed there anyway, looking for the identity of the key holders, but I was a hundred percept sure that Harry Potter and his gay lover Ron had two of the keys, for they were the most satanic person and devilish gits ever to ever exist, curse them,

[shewhostaples]

I suspect anything with a character named 'Ebony' of being trollfic, though you have to give this one kudos for trying. Also, it claims that the world is going to end on my birthday, which is just rude.

[clanwilliam]

I did like that you satirised the dodgy elements, while making both Amy and Terry sincere and likeable people.

And I loved Hermione's approach to Amy - *so* Hermione.

And Amy's shock when the third year slaps her, as in her self-absorbtion about her personal "martyrdom", it had never occurred to her that she was causing deep and lingering pain in those around.

The church noticeboard is ace - Arthimancy in Changeringing is my favourite bit.

[choirwoman]

I've just finished reading PUSH and I love it! I hung around in a high-church parish when I was living in England (Salisbury, not the cathedral but a parish church) and recognise quite a bit. Love the noticeboard, and Arithmancy in Change Ringing.

[choirwoman]

More to the point (now I've had time to think, and eat, and sample my fortuitous banoffee ice cream experiment): what I like most about it is that the magical people are people, they do normal people things, the only difference is that magic is part of their world. That's one of the major quibbles I have with Rowling: the complete separation of the wizarding world and the Muggle world.

[schemingreader]

Oh! I thought I was supposed to pick one based on which one I liked!

All right, tell me about #4, and I think I'm doing this meme next!

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, you could do that too, if you liked!

[tree_and_leaf]

4 is Like a Thief In the Night, from the vanishingly tiny Rev. fandom (4 fics on the AO3, counting this one!). It's a day in the life of our hapless priest figure, told through the medium of messages left on his answer phone.

1. I'm proud of the fact that I nailed the voices. They're all identifiable, even where there's not an attribution.

2. I also like the fact that I told a story in an unusual way and without any direct narrative - it was both fun to write, and it stretched me a bit.

3. I really enjoy writing the Archdeacon. He's a great character.

[white_hart]

39?

[tree_and_leaf]

And after darkness, light.

1. I think the "killing Aslan" dream sequence is a pretty good piece of writing, though I found it quite uncomfortable to write.

2. I enjoyed writing about that period and about that church milieu. (I really should write some "Call the Midwife" fic).

3. I found writing Susan challenging; she's not one of the characters I naturally found sympathetic, but I found that changing as I thought more about her. The sentence where I felt I'd got hold of her was she was aware that this wasn't being sensible, but – she'd tried sensible for so long, even when she'd been being what her brothers had called silly it had been sensible in other peoples' eyes, and all it had done was let her down, leave her frightened and alone when all she had been trying to do was to stop feeling powerless and frightened. She gets a rotten deal.

[shewhostaples]

26?

[tree_and_leaf]

To Absent Friends

This is so short that finding three things is much harder, but here goes:

1 Alan Breck Stewart is tremendous fun to write.

2. The Scots.

3. It may not be all that plausible, but I still really like the idea of Jamie becoming a doctor.

[rembrandtswife]

18?

[tree_and_leaf]

Clothes Make the Vedek

1 Kira! I love Kira, she's my favourite.

2 I like her discomfort with using religious robes as a disguise, even in a good cause (Kira's faith is one of the things I really like about her, especially as its usually written intelligently).

3 I always enjoy characters who are trying to avoid admitting things to themselves, particularly if they're usually honest and self-aware.

[choirwoman]

Oh wow, do you realise you've got me reading? A lot? Before I can shout any numbers? (I don't know enough Dr Who, and I don't know *anything* about some of the other fandoms, but Harry Potter and Narnia and especially the Bible will keep me busy for a while!)

[tree_and_leaf]

*g*

[liseuse]

27!

[tree_and_leaf]

Ah yes, One Last Test.

1. I think the narrative voice is pretty good. I don't write much first-person, so this was fun to do and I'm happy about how it turned out.

2. I think it's kind of hot, in a dub-conny, wrong sort of way.

3. I really like the last line. I struggle with how to end ficlets, but that one works.

[choirwoman]

51, if that's the sad Peter and Harriet story. Perhaps I shouldn't have read it just before bed; it made me cry and have trouble getting to sleep (that last may also have been the lurgy, though).

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh dear, I'm sorry. That said:

1. It's a powerful story, and I'm proud of that.

2. The dawn rose cold and pale over the Fens, and far away in London they hanged Harriet Vane.

I really like this sentence.

3. I like the literary quotations and allusions.

[choirwoman]

I love the Jesus and John one, and I've sent a link to a couple of people in the choir (Orthodox church choir, small enough to be a bunch of friends who happen to sing together) because it's so right. (Not a request, this one, just needed a place to say it)