The continuing saga of "Wook Goes to School" and a meme

[wook77]

Went to the local community college and took my placement exams. Surprise surprise, I got perfect scores. (Can I use this as beta certification that I edited four essays properly?) In fact, due to my high scores, I tested into the honors program there which, yanno, is a waste as I'm only taking one class there.

Am signed up for my intro to international relations class and will be starting it in a couple of weeks. So, it was a productive day, even if I didn't get any writing done at all.

Speaking of writing - I was tagged for that Five Favourite Fics I've written meme. So, here goes -

WRITER'S MEME: Sometimes it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of the top five favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same. (I don't do well at tagging so no one is tagged)

Moments - (Harry/Draco) It's got a disparate timeline, darkness, an interesting ending and explores various themes. I adore this story though it wasn't well received. I wrote it when I was extremely happy, which makes it a bit boggling that it came out the way it did. I don't think it's the best thing I've ever written but I do love it.

Deprecor - (Harry/Draco) When I started writing this story, it was a complete and total PWP. I never meant it to have any sort of theme or moral or anything at all other than BDSM. I love exploring the lifestyle. Hell, I used to live that lifestyle for awhile. To see it evolve into something unexpected and well-received made me extremely happy. Some authors hate that but I love when stories do that.

Moments in Memory - (Neville/Ginny) I wrote this for hp_springsmut and omg, so much research and pushing of the self on this one. I wrote this for coffee_n_cocoa and I angsted over it like you wouldn't believe. Hello, writing Neville for the most fantastic Neville writer ever? Yeah, stressful. I have such a brilliant support network of friends that listen to my wibbling, slap me upside the head and then make me go with the ideas. So, not only am I proud of this story and think that it holds up even now, it reminds me of my friends and the way they listened to my ideas and my flailing and reassured me/kicked my ass/helped me.

This next one - I'm going to cheat on by doing two separate stories as one. Last August, I had two Deamus prompts. I angsted over both. The first was what became Root So Deep and the second became Wish Long and Long. My justification of these two being combined into one is that the writing experience, timeline and the posting date meld into one. I remember when I saw the list of who had made it into smutmas and I looked at that list and prayed for kaalee. When I got her, I bit my hand to keep from crying and I knew, absolutely knew, the story I wanted to tell. It was completely crystal clear in my head. The same is true of Wish Long and Long. Both stories were there and completely begging to be told. I stayed up long through the night writing both of these stories. I'm truly proud of them for a variety of reasons. The first is that they turned out fantastic and that's not just ego speaking. The second is that they turned out exactly as I envisioned from the beginning. The third is that I wrote them for people I love. The fourth is that network of support I just talked about. My friends organised group chats JUST to cheer me on and reassure me. People that don't read HP or Deamus or slash or even fanfiction, read over them and helped me. I'm getting maudlin but these stories proved to me that fandom is a community.

Finally - This list wouldn't be complete without One Last Fare. This was my first piece of fanfiction in Harry Potter. It doesn't quite hold up to the new writing style and skill level but I'm still inordinately pround of this and I adore it. I was so scared when I linked it to the first community here on LJ. OMG, soooo scared that people would hate it and tell me so. Then people responded to it and were so gracious. I love that this story launched me into this crazy community known as fandom.

So there you have it. My five favourite fics that I've written. They're not all the best in the world but I do love them muchly. I'll admit that I haven't lost that small flutter when I hit post and I wait, anxiously, to see what people are going to think of my latest creation. I don't think that ever goes away, no matter where you are in the food chain of fandom or writing.

Comments

[coffee-n-cocoa.livejournal.com]

*snuggles you*

I really did love that fic you wrote for me, you know. I still go back and reread it occasionally (and yay for giving me an excuse to read it yet again! :D).

Hello, writing Neville for the most fantastic Neville writer ever?

*blush* I could point you toward a bunch of writers who write him better, and as many fics to prove it! I'm just his fangirl!

[chaeldub.livejournal.com]

Now that is just plain freaky... I just re-read (for the umpteenth time) Wish Long and Long yesterday! It still gets me choked up when Seamus puts his hand on Deans chest and Dean puts his hand on Seamus's, ignoring the pain momentarily for that touch. *dries eyes* Still the best thing anyone has ever written for me, because it just got me, right to the centre, like nothing else has.

♥

That was a crazy month for Deamus fics and when I read Root So Deep and knew straight away it was yours I was *eek* how am I going to be able to write Deamus as good as this for you...

I will say that it was through reading those fics that they got in my head and there they have stayed as my favourite boys.

*hugs*

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

I'm terribly late to this, and a lurker, friend of kaalee's for a goodly while, and writing my first Deamus. So! I'm so glad to have gone diving a bit deeper into your posts to see which of your stories you recommend, as I'm going to read at least a couple of them. I do love this meme especially when writers say why they love these particular fics of their own.

Yay for keeping the Deamus flame burning. :)

Oh, and I do love Dom, as well. What a yummy mood set.

[wook77.livejournal.com]

Oh awesome! Welcome to my craziness! I hope you enjoy the stories but if there's ever something that doesn't work for you, feel free to let me know :)

I love and adore dom... and monaboyd... mmmm. Though, I've never been able to get into Lost.

I'll have to check out your fic! Yayes for Deamus :)

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the welcome!! I read "Root So Deep" when I saw it was Deamus during Merry Smutmas (I was an author too, but wasn't very good at leaving many reviews; maybe I'm a better person than I am and left you a review. I hope I did!) and I read "Wish Long and Long" over the weekend. That was very well crafted, and had luxuriant pacing to it, which I always appreciate in a story. I also really enjoyed how tender it all was, and that it wasn't really a "happily ever after" story, even if, in some ways, that was exactly how it was. That they could never really touch absolutely broke my heart, and I admired Seamus' maturity about that, even while acknowledging that it wasn't how things *should* have been. Much like real life, yes? At any rate, I really enjoyed the story, and I may treat myself to your H/D BDSM fic that you self-recommended, just out of curiosity. I didn't know that you wrote anything other than Seamus/Dean until I saw your list, so shame on me for having pigeon-holed you!

[wook77.livejournal.com]

The funny thing about the "pigeon-holing" comment is that I started branching out because I didn't want to get pigeon-holed as a H/D writer. Almost all of my earlier works are H/D and then I slipped in some random rarepairs and then went into Deamus and now I'm fixating focusing on that :).

I do appreciate the comments so much! Personally, the greatest compliment I can receive is when someone feels that a story is "real". I strive for realism in everything I write... the emotional interactions, the sex, the situations, etc. They all have to be realistic to me or I lose interest quickly. That's not to say that I don't appreciate the fantastical when others write it becuase I do. It's just for my own interest as I'm writing that it's got to be real, that the problems have to have a "real" fix to it.

The great thing, also, about your comments is that if you were to ask most of my betas, they'd tell you that I don't "do" tender. I prefer to put people through hell and have them come out on the other end the better for it. For some reason, I do have a soft spot for these two and I like being a bit nicer to them, though ending Wish Long and Long the way I did doesn't strike me as completely nice.

I keep thinking about that story, thinking that I could write a fix, make it better and heal Dean somehow but I know that if i do that, it ruins the story. The story sticks with you simply because it isn't a happily ever after. In addition, Chael isn't completely into Happily Ever After and so I feel like I'd be doing him a disservice as well.

And now I'm totally rambling but feel free to let me know what all you think. Deprecor is part of a trilogy that I called the "Latin Trilogy" and all the bits are in my memories :).

Also - I have parts 1 and 2 of your fic bookmarked to read so I haven't forgotten :).

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Firstly: LOVE the icon!! I've watched him on tv, just because of how calming he is. LOL. Wow. What a marvelous icon topic/persona.

I'm intrigued by the tender thing, now. Perhaps its because I began with some of your most recent fics, and they're both Seamus/Dean. Both of those radiate tenderness to me; not saccharine anything, and very, very real, but they aren't jagged or jolting, if that makes sense. I suppose really what I'm trying to convey in an amazingly inarticulate way for a writer, is that your genuine affection for the characters shines through in how they're treated and presented in those two stories. I hope I'm making sense. I don't really do happily ever after... almost never. Not because it doesn't happen to other people, but that's not been the case for me, and frankly, I'm a very pragmatic person. I'm terribly sentimental, but not romantic. Not often, anyway. I very much understand your idea of doing a disservice by pasting on something that doesn't belong there. The ending, as you wrote it, :fits:. Which is part of why it rings so true and genuine, as a believable, well-written story will do. Kudos, again.

As for my fic, it's going to be pretty long, so take your time. :) It's not finished yet, but they're letting me know how things will progress, thank goodness. There's about 30K of story so far to be posted; they've been chatty.