Well, that's most of February down...

I didn't realize I hadn't posted in more than a month. :P Ah well, I'm behind on everything anyway.

I got more chapter notes for TWC2; I'm going to try to do another chapter and then do the ones for the latest chapter of TWC4 too :)

Anyway here we go: TWC2 Act II, Chapter 1:

References:

Um, I don't think there are any in this one. O_o A couple of vague callbacks to episodes, but nothing really specific. The family picture that Beth looks at appears in at least one or two eps. That's actually it... I guess it's a sign of maturity that I write my own jokes now instead of referencing the shows I watched all the time, but I kinda miss the refs. :P

***

- This is actually my first time rereading this in at least a year... I'm kinda impressed with how I wrote this chapter, actually, even though nothing much happens in it. Just a good chapter for seeing Gosalyn from an outsider's perspective, and for DW in general, I think. God I'm an egotist. :P

- I'd actually forgotten that I went into a rundown of how Gosalyn's mind worked on homework. This seems apt, actually. I was thinking, I believe, of how we've seen her do homework on the show - I think maybe in "Whiffle While You Work?" She just zips through it whether it's right or not so that she can do other things. But she's clearly really very smart and just doesn't want to spend the time applying herself. I'm really not trying to get into a "real world" dissection of how Gos's personality and intellect work, but I like to stick a tiny bit more realism and detail (not too much, I hope) into my fics than are in the cartoons. What I like about the cartoons is that they imply this behind the scenes, intentionally or not. You can read this sort of thing to it if you want to look for it. :)

- And then meanwhile, I love when Gos turns around and gets into trouble. She's so GOOD at it. My original version of this fic had more specific instances of troublemaking but I didn't really like them then and I hate them now. I thought it would be better to just sort of gloss over Gos doing whatever she likes (including breaking things) and Beth cleaning up after her, only to stand up and find something new has been broken. XD It's OK, though, Beth likes to clean. :P

- What's sort of more important and kind of up to the reader to decide if it works is Beth's liking of Gosalyn (underneath the personality mismatch Beth gets really attached to her really quickly) as well as Gosalyn's initial semi-detached liking of Beth. I think this starts as "she's not really bad and she lets me do what I want" but I'm not sure where exactly it turns into liking her for real. I guess it's just based around the fact that Gosalyn, unlike her father, doesn't *dislike* many people for no reason. Beth, yeah, she can be a bit... much, but she's actually better with kids than with adults, and so she's not as irritating as she is with Drake. But that comes later - she's basically in a "please walk all over me" stage in this fic with Gosalyn. Still though, I think Gosalyn's reaction to her is decent. Not mean-spirited, she just takes the opportunity to have a good time and get away with stuff, and Beth isn't bothering her.

- I'm not *really* sure when I came up with the idea that DW would think Beth is a supervillain. I think it was before I got very far into this fic, though. I mean, I know I hinted at the end of TWC1 that he thought she'd been in cahoots with Megavolt, but that was really a passing thing... I hadn't intended for him to return to it once Megs was defeated and she showed up again. But then I had the idea that this would be his keystone excuse for disliking her - when of course, really, he's just suspicious of her *because* he doesn't like her. But it's easier to dislike someone when you think you have a really great rationale. XD

- In spite of his view on Beth I never, ever mean for DW to come off as too mean, or as unsympathetic, or as dislikable. There are episodes of the series where he's an absolute *creep*, to people he really loves; yet we still love him and relate to him. That's all I was going for here, just the fact that it would be more in his character to dismiss or downright dislike someone like Beth (and it creates drama because she's gone on him), not to make him look BAD. I hope nothing I write looks like character assassination, because it's really done with love and acceptance, even appreciation, of Drake's flaws.

- So help me I love the scene between DW and Gos. :) The cute parts, I mean. I love writing their interactions, the way they love each other so much but push all of each others' buttons, and sometimes can't resist doing so on purpose. :D

- Fifty points for having Gos completely, straight-faced get offended that her father would even THINK of suggesting that she'd have Beth do her homework for her. I think she's even actually offended by the suggestion even though it's totally true. XD

- UGH LATE NIGHT INVENTORIES, Beth, I feel for ya.

Young ladies? I ROCK ya!

I thought I'd do a music post!

I've been lately trying to sort of "score" TWC as a series and I finally put together a playlist on YouTube to help me. Now instead of just looking these songs up when I'm not a computer with my MP3s (which is most of the time), I can just go to my playlist! Yaaay!

..So it's a work in progress, but I have 15? I think? songs on there right now from varying points in the series. Most of them are around TWC3-4 though. :P At this point it's like every chapter in TWC4 has a song. GAH.

Here's the link to the playlist in general: THIS link! Right HERE! There is no actual rocking of young ladies involved. Unless you like a lot of 80s music and quite a bit of schmoopy love songs. :D And if you do, YOU'RE ME! XD Enjoy the playlist!

So I'm also thinking, since it's not necessarily clear at a glance, that I'll elaborate on a few of these picks. They are roughly in order in the series, starting with Love Stinks by the J. Geils Band!

- This is the unofficial "theme" of TWC. It's expliclitly referenced in "High, Dry, and Flooded" (twice in fact) but it's been the "theme" for the series ever since I heard it in high school when I was first writing the fics.
- It's the "Love Triangle" thing in case you didn't get it. :P
- I didn't hear it on the radio for years and then suddenly there it was in rotations again, occasionally. YAY! Finally I caved and bought the MP3.
- It's used brilliantly in "The Wedding Singer" which is among my "guilty pleasure" RomComs. That movie makes me cry to the point where I'll watch the happy ending twice in a row. But I digress.
- My father was friends with J. Geils! :D Random fun fact.

Just today I added the second song, Another Day by Paul McCartney (and Wings? I'm not clear on that). I've had a lot of trouble finding songs for the first two fics. I wanted something that would kind of sum up Beth, too.
- They play this song at my grocery store sometimes which is what brought it to my attention. :P
- When I finally looked up the words I realized it was pretty perfect for Beth at the start of the series, as it sums up a boring, lonely life lived by an ordinary woman who never has anything interesting happen to her.
- Paul McCartney's solo stuff is so LIVELY. :D
- This is the only song I have for TWC1 so far. If anyone can suggest anything else that would be great!

I'll do another post sometime soon with the next few songs. ^_^

The Writing Bug

I've been writing like a fiend this past weekend :D I've actually been alternating between my two in-progress fics, TWC4 (working on Chapter 4) and "Those Daring McQuacks in their Flying Machines" (Act II chapter 2). I'm mostly done with the TWC4 chapter and perhaps half done with the other.

The unfortunate part is that I'm not really sure when I'm going to release them once they're done. Because I know I'm not going to get much, if any feedback, and I know it's going to be discouraging. And as long as I'm writing them for me and enjoying them, I'm happy. So I might just sit on this for a while, ride the wave and see how far it gets me. If I can make significant headway on "Flying Machines" this week that would be amazing. I started that one almost a year ago now and I barely have the presence of mind to work on it (this is only the 4th chapter out of, I suppose, 9 that I'm on right now), but it's nice to be in the "current" timeline sometimes instead of back in the rewrites.

It's neat, in any case. I'm not sure precisely when I started working on TWC4, I think it was the middle of last week but I can't quite remember; but I'm about 3600 words through THAT with one more scene to do so it'll probably top out around 4500 or so. And I started "Flying Machines" on Friday night, I think, and I'm a good 3,000 words into THAT by now. It'll likely get split into two chapters. There were a bunch of things I wanted to put into the first chapter of Act II that didn't fit, so I have to get them done first and THEN get to what I had planned for chapter 2... so it's definitely longer than intended. Act I had two chapters so I guess Act II will have 4. Oh well.

Notes for Chapter 3 of TWC2! THIS IS HAPPENING. Because I have to get through these damn things sometime.

References:
- Harry Potter (Gillyweed). Not sure why I tossed that in there except that it's kind of cute. I'm not really much of a Pottergeek and probably wouldn't catch half the refs someone else might throw into this sort of thing.
- The Simpsons - kind of; Gos's "All of it?" in response to Beth asking her what area she needed help in is a throwback to Homer's response to being asked what safety initiatives he has spearheaded in his role as safety inspector. "...All of them?"

First scene: I've always envisioned Bushroot as basically being a vine-like structure. I think that's obviously the case with his arms, anyway. I guess his body could be considered a stem, but I like the increased flexibility that it would have from being a vine. Still, though, this refers to his arms and they are definitely vines, IMO. haha, like I'm the definitive opinion. XD

I love Spike. I love the interactions between Spike and Bushroot. I tried to write the parts where Bushy is all mad scientist and then goes into "normal guy mode" with Spike around. :D

Listen to me BS about how this compound works! I thought long and hard over this half-assed explanation! Originally the fic just had Bushroot able to just... make all the plants get big. I decided for him to do it all throughout the entire town he'd need some kind of help, but he can make formulas easily, so why not here?

Playing early on with the "secret identity" dance, and keeping Beth from figuring it out. Not sure how convincing this is... it's always going to be a big huge plot hole for me and I can't fix it. *sigh*

So here's another thing I thought long and hard on, and didn't really effectively manage, IMO. HOW would Beth manage to get Gos to do what she asks? Beth is good with kids, surprisingly, but not with telling people what to do. And Gos is really good at not doing what she's told, anyway. There's no reason that Gos wouldn't walk all over her, unless Beth can offer something. So I came up with the moderately unethical solution of Beth offering to do half of Gos's homework, and rationalizing it to herself by making Gos do the other half. XD

I tried to make Gos sound like herself, be likable but a handful.

Aaaand we return to "Beth Mallard". And LP getting as big of a kick out of it as I do. XD

By this point I had hit on the idea that perhaps DW might keep Beth around because he's suspicious of her, and that it would give him an excuse to keep disliking her. So this was how I set it into motion.

And we end with another Spike scene. So much fun to write. :D Tried to visualize this and then give some POV reactions as I thought Spike's body language might suggest them. :)

30 Days Meme day 15

Day 15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what’s the strangest thing you’ve warned for in a story?

I feel it's vital to warn for sexual content. Not only for age reasons but for those of us who (as I mentioned in my last post) have issues with sexual or violent content for certain shows. I can't make people warn for it, of course, but... I prefer to be warned.

Myself, I *overwarn* for those things.

I don't like it when people insist on being "warned" about pairings, but I know some people have issues with not knowing. I'd like to know the genre up front I guess... But only if it's tightly in that genre. I don't have a particular genre I center in so I can't warn for those, so it's pointless for me to bitch about people NOT labelling them.

I don't know, though. I don't warn all that much. I guess I warn if I write anything outside the normal spectrum of the series, and I do write a notice about having an OC because some people don't want to read OC fics and I'm cool with that. I'd rather have them not read the fic than read it, find out there's an OC, and bitch at me. ;)

The weirdest thing I ever warned for was angst. A whole big, mushy pile of angst. :D

30 Days Meme day 14

Day 14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you’re comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you’re writing is G-rated instead?

Right now I'll usually only go up to R, at most. A rather mild R. And honestly, right NOW, I don't think I'd write above a PG-13 but depending on the fandom I'd be willing to go up to R.

I did used to write explicit smut though :D

What's happened now is that I guess I sort of feel less exhibitionary now that I'm older - I also feel like most of my smut is really over the top 9_9 And that's assuming I'm not writing in DWDverse.

In DWDverse, I have the same reaction I have to all programs aimed at kids: I have a very, VERY hard time putting myself outside of the "kid-friendly" mindset. I approach ALL child-friendly shows that way: even Avatar, which had some way older themes and debatably has characters who could, perhaps within a few years, have sex drives and justified smut fics - I have no interest in writing or even reading anything above a PG-13 rating. With Darkwing I have to know what I'm going to be seeing before I go to it and even then it's a stretch. I have tried, and I'm just not comfortable with explicit sexual content. Or, well, anything that's very strongly outside the original tone of the show, so I have cognitive dissonance when a character *swears* in a fic. :D I can't write it.

I *can* break outside of that - vaguely - and slowly, by getting very used to the idea first. But even then I have to label it "non-canon" in my head.

It is 60 minutes after I intended to go to bed

I may keel over.

I'm jus tgoing to jump into chapter notes on TWC4. I know this is jarring b/c I haven't done any notes on Chapters 1 or 2 but... I'll get to those later. :)

References:

- The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly
- Also "Buddy Holly" by Weezer - I couldn't resist on that one.
- DWD episode "Twin Beaks"


- Okay, Chapter 3 and we FINALLY get a reference to the earthquake plot being more than just a backdrop for the fic :P And it will take even longer to see that pan out... think "next act"...

- I think this might possibly be the earliest (chronological) reference to the fact that Beth used to live in Duckburg. I'm pretty sure I hadn't mentioned this in the earlier fics anywhere.

- You know, Beth's thought that maybe she won't be seen by "too many people who matter" when she finds that Launchpad is the one who answers the door is just.. mean. She doesnt' realize it's mean but it's mean. :(

- This scene was really hard to write. I'm not sure why... well for one it went on a little too long and I couldn't cut things without making it disjointed so I kept having to just trash it and rewrite it, pushing a bit harder in a particular direction. But also, getting the right tone was SUPER tricky. You know - just making sure that it didn't come across as mean, and that there was a reason that he'd think she was fine with the conversation. The reason is because she dislikes confrontation and she's telling herself to lighten up, so she makes herself go along with it but the minute he starts implying that she might not be UNattractive she can't take it since she takes it to mean the reverse.

- Right after the Launchpad scene I had a scene with Beth speaking to Binkie and being kind of fascinated with her... from the perspective of, like, "I didn't think that mothers like her still existed today!" I kept it and I'll put it up here maybe tomorrow, I think ther'es nothing wrong with it, but it was not essential to the plot at all. Just cut for length. At this point in the fic, they have met before (the previous night in fact), but Beth just can't figure out how to respond to Binkie.

- The original version of the fic had Launchpad driving Beth and Gos to the mall, but not staying with them. He did it just because he was sweet on Beth so you could say pretty much anything like "Beth needs a drink of water" and he'd go get it. Or "Beth needs an entire new wardrobe" and he'd be like "What colour?" Which is a terrible idea, to let LP pick out your clothes. But I digress. Another difference is that instead of Honker going with them, Binkie accompanied them. I DO NOT KNOW WHY NOW. I thought about leaving that in but couldn't find any possible reason it would make sense. Instead it made more sense to have Honker along and let Beth hang out with two children vastly younger than her. :)

- So. I have to say. The stuff with Gosalyn all leaves me incredibly pleased with myself. I wish I'd heard from people who liked it but ... at least I've not heard from anyone saying they DON'T like it. Silver lining! :D Seriously though, I just had so much fun writing her and I think it's not only fun to read, I think it's in-character. I sure hope so anyway. I find GOs can be tricky to write.

- I don't think it's abnormal to have an eye exam/glasses store inside a mall. If it seems abnormal, please know that when we were in college my husband used to go to a dentist whose office was in the mall. So maybe it's just that kind of mall. Incidentally note how this puts a timestamp on the fic: there's a Halloween store mentioned, to remind you that it's October. :)

- The idea that Beth could just get not only frames and new lenses but also contact lenses, in approximately an hour, is silly. At least I think it is. I know it was when I first wrote it back in the mid-'90s... I assume it still is. But let's just go with it. It is not the only thing I will be asking you to suspend disbelief on during this fic. XD

- I discovered while RPing Beth that she doesn't let people move her outside of her comfort zone. I can't force her to do anything interesting because when I'm in her headspace she argues politely but ferociously. She nearly always wins. So it seemed logical to work that into the fic and have Gos get frustrated. Beth seems like a pushover but that's only when it's for someone else's benefit. If it's for hers she won't do it and you can't make her.

- Also I really need to write Honker more often. (I said that just the other day when I posted the preview for this chapter, I know.) He's just very... quiet. But I like having him around, and before the rewrites he didn't appear in the series until TWC5. Even if he's only been in it a little, at least he's been *present* since TWC3. Meanwhile, within this fic, I really liked having him and Beth jibe a bit on their opinions. They get along really well since in a lot of ways they're kind of um... the same character. ^^;

- Throwing in a reference to Honker's Aunt Trudy from Twin Beaks just happened but it felt natural. I like it. :)

- I think I've said this before, but I'll specify it again: Beth is actually a very good seamstress, but you can't tell it from looking at her clothes because she doesn't make them to fit her properly. She makes all her shirts at least one size too big, for reasons unknown. I don't show that properly in my pics of her. :P But it's true!

- Favourite line in this one is Gosalyn's dismissal of the candy store comparison.