If you like genderswap, you should go check out the genderbenderfic comm and especially, cruentum's prompts for their upcoming challenge, because they are ridiculously awesome and I want to see them written. I'll probably try for at least one, but seriously, fellow writers, GO LOOK.

And hey, leave a prompt or five too! I put up a few of my own.

Hoh boy. This fic has got to have the dirtiest outline ever created in Scrivener. To give you a hint, it is entitled ''Seven Practical Uses of Vibrators (A User's Guide)'' and here is a bit of it:

Ianto marveled that any man, even Jack, could sound so in-control bent over his desk with a vibrator and another man's fingers up his arse.

*goes back to very important work*

While I was flipping through my A Matter of Time folder, I came across some notes I'd made on how I saw the three different Jacks, and Ianto, for character work. It was interesting to reread, especially since I last modified it in April.

( this is very, very spoiler-y for ALL of AMoT, so don't click this if you haven't read it and are planning to )

On another note, madeira has kindly granted me some space at her domain, so once we have coffee and she teaches me how to use it, I'll post all of AMoT in one html document, so anyone who wants to download it to read it offline can do so. Until then, I can send out the whole word document, so feel free to message me your email address if you would so like a copy.

allopathic, who knows me in real life and doesn't actually read my writing because he doesn't watch Torchwood (but is a cool guy who likes to chat about writing processes and other such things) got me thinking. The particular question he posed to me was:

Do you put a lot of thought into your writing before you start typing?

I hemmed and hawed a little, and asked him if he meant for new chapters or for short stories, or at the beginning of a long, chaptered story. He said he wasn't restricting himself, and it got me thinking; how do I plan, but more specifically, how do I plan different things? This rambling meta is an attempt to answer that question. I'll reference things I've written, and there will likely be spoilers for A Matter of Time up to chapter 17. It isn't a guide to writing - I'm far from qualified, and am still learning how I write best - but more an exploration of what I do but don't necessarily put into words

( how I write ) 

So I wrote an essay-ish thing (not well-structured enough to be an actual essay) on some of the stuff I'm fighting with to do with Jack's character in A Matter of Time, and posted it here, over at the Torchwood Writers' Union. If you're curious, take a look and let me know what you think.

For the most part, I'm taking a look at Jack's character and trying to sort out why he's either read as monogamous or a jackass. It's sort of a meta on the fic, and sort of a character analysis of Jack.

For all those who saw mention of this idea in a previous post, jbs_teeth  and I have got a simple forum up and running. For anyone who didn't, the initial idea was brought up here.

Torchwood Writers' Union: Not because we don't love our show, but because we think we can do better.

WHO? Torchwood writers, beta-editors, people who are thinking about either, or anyone who wants to discuss the writing of Torchwood fanfic.

WHAT? A bulletinboard layout for ease of conversation. Which we think will be a lot better for this type of discussion than an LJ. No squished comments?

WHERE? Here!

WHY? Because we like to talk about writing and Torchwood with as many other interested people as possible.

WHEN? It's open now! Register, say hello, start a thread, whatever. Tell your friends, too.

I suggest you register with your lj account name, just so we can connect you to your writerly self. Unless you'd rather be anonymous, in which case, by all means, choose a different name.

I just discovered word has an autosummarize feature. So, for fun, I did a 1% summary of the first 10 chapters of AMoT. Wow, do I use dialogue much? Funny how it keeps a lot of the dialogue descriptors (said, asked, begged...) but not a lot of what's in the quotations, I wonder how it's coded to work.

The best bits:

Ianto hesitated. Ianto shrugged. Ianto didn’t answer. "No," Ianto shrugged. Ianto’s gut wrenched. “Tie,” Ianto supplied.

“Relationships,” Ianto replied. No, thought Ianto dully. Kethan sat down next to Ianto.

Here's the whole thing:

( I guess I really do write a lot of dialogue. )
Wonder who it's about?

So, both thaddeusfavour and spiderine have got me thinking about smut, recently. As in, what makes good smut. Because lets face it, most of the sex scenes in fic out there - and in an "adult" fandom like Torchwood, that's a lot of sex scenes - are mediocre at best, and boring at the worst.

What makes good smut? I don't have a particular taste, for me, it all comes down to good writing in general. So what makes good writing, with regards to sex? I think spiderine has a point when she says that if your sex scene is boring, "this is because you're ignoring character and plot." I (so far) have never written anything really x-rated, and all my sex scenes in AMoT have come directly from the plot and the characters, but what about when you're writing a one-off, or a chaptered fic that's more romance than action/adventure? I'm not sure I could articulate it better than spiderine did, but I wanted to look at a few fics I think are "more than sex", and are a compelling story - even if that story is primarily about sex.

Interested in some x-rated recs? Here are my favourites, and why I think they succeed at being more than just sex.

( Read more... )
What about you? What Torchwood fics are decidedly smutty but at the same, so much more? Link me and I will read it (though I probably already have). I'm sure I've forgotten some of my favourites, so I'll probably add to this list as I find them.