last(ish)-minute squee, etc.

[kageygirl]

I'd say, "Wow, I'm doing very little work today," but this does not, as such, differ greatly from the norm. *g*

Were I one of the brighter bulbs in the chandelier, I would have posted directions to McCormick and Schmick's yesterday. ::cough::

Also, for anyone going to see Serenity, wherever ye be, fanaddict pointed me to a post by fajitas with, not spoilers as such, but discrepancies between the movie and the series. Of the type that, if you know about them going in, you won't waste valuable time and brainspace trying to figure out "wtf is up with that?", and can instead focus on ogling the shiny, pretty people. Er, by which I mean appreciating the plot and enjoying the mise en scene. Yeah, that.

~

Unrelated to Firefly bidness--I posted a Zelenka & McKay fic over at sga_flashfic, and it invoked some writerly navel-gazing.

1) I adore Zelenka (Zelenka!), but Zelenka POV makes me wicked nervous. We probably know him better than any of the other secondary characters (I'm counting Beckett as primary, since he's going to join the Opening Credits Kids), yet I'm not sure I've got a grasp on him. (I mean, I'd like to have a grasp on him... *g* < /gratuitous perving>) Do I need more canon? (well, yes, in the perving sense, for sure.) Do I actually need more fanfic about him, as a sort of baseline reinforcement thing? I do not know. Ponder ponder.

2) I've become fairly averse to posting nearly anything unbetaed, which is kind of nutty, considering how short I've been writing of late. *g* wickdzoot gave me the thumbs-up, and I was pushing the extended deadline anyway, but otherwise I'd have waited. I think I'm superstitious. (actually, I'm convinced every time I post something that this will be the time that I flash the man behind the curtain at y'all and prove that I actually cannot write worth a damn. seriously. y'all make me feel like a pack mule in a herd of thoroughbreds. *g* I don't actually feel bad about that, it just is. ::shrugs::)

3) miera_c has a not-exactly-secret belief that they're all in love with Elizabeth. *g* My not-so-secret belief seems to be that they might not all love Rodney, but ain't none of them neutral about him. He is the stone on the riverbed. Or the giant branchy fallen tree in the middle of the river. *g* Just verbalizing the observer bias, so that it may be acknowledged in the case study...

4) There is no number four. (actually, I feel like there was, but my department head was hovering in the cubicle behind me for like an hour, and it has gone all away.) Wait, I lie, I'll make one up--mmmchelle is all hot and thinky and meta today. Go look her up. *g*

*lubes and bashes*, as per carolyn_claire *eg*

Comments

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

My not-so-secret belief seems to be that they might not all love Rodney, but ain't none of them neutral about him.

That's not canon? How could anyone be neutral about Rodney?

[kageygirl.livejournal.com]

Hee. I should perhaps have said "indifferent," now that I think about it. Not that that would negate my non-point insofar as I don't disagree with you. *g*

[agentotter.livejournal.com]

Well, if it helps any... I'd probably take a pack mule over a thoroughbred any day. Mules are about a bajillion times smarter than thoroughbreds. See? Appearances, deceiving, and all that other rot.

[kageygirl.livejournal.com]

Heh. It's me recurring metaphor--even before I screwed up my knees, I could never run all that fast, but I can strap on a backpack and walk all damn day. I have learned to accept my place in the scheme of things, if not quite with equanimity, then I'd like to believe with good humor and an appreciation of the absurd. *g*

[coreopsis.livejournal.com]

(actually, I'm convinced every time I post something that this will be the time that I flash the man behind the curtain at y'all and prove that I actually cannot write worth a damn. seriously. y'all make me feel like a pack mule in a herd of thoroughbreds. *g* I don't actually feel bad about that, it just is. ::shrugs::)
Woman, I swear, you better GET OUT OF MY HEAD. *g* Seriously, every story I write I'm convinced it is my last, and have thought for the last 8 years or so. Which may be one reason I tend to have a couple things going at once, to make me commit. Except that it doesn't always work, so perhaps my subconcious is not so clever as it thinks. heh.

And Zelenka vexes me deeply because I love him so, so much in canon and yet in fanfic he is often written in ways I just can't go with. (yours, as I already said, I loved) So I end up skipping a lot of stories that feature him out of fear that they'll suck*, and then I feel bad because I want to read more stories that feature him. This is why I don't write him much either. I want to but I'm afraid of getting him wrong and adding to the (perceived) badness.

* of course, I mean "suck" as in "perfectly valid but doesn't work for me, personally" because I'm all about supporting everyone else's vision of the characters...yeah. *g*

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

I would love to hear more about how you think Zelenka is written poorly. I tend not to write characters I don't have a good grasp on, so I've been avoiding him. I haven't noticed much of a difference in the fic treatment of him, because I don't read the shippy stuff about him and accent-speak throws me right out of a story, so I haven't been reading much fic with him.

To me he's pretty much defined by the fact that he's the only person who tells McKay exactly what he thinks of him. Beckett mutters about McKay, Sheppard puts up with him, but Zelenka tells him off.

I'd really like to be able to define him as a person without using McKay as a reference point.

[coreopsis.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I'm not sure how to articulate some of the issues I have because mostly I'd be tempted to point to specific stories (mostly gen, not slash) and say "I don't understand how the writer came to this extrapolation" which is really what it comes down to because the stories I've had the most WTF response to are not badly written stories at all-- they just didn't work for me so well. And I don't feel comfortable doing that in public.

So yeah, sorry I'm next to useless. *g*

I'd really like to be able to define him as a person without using McKay as a reference point.
Understandable. Since most of his airtime is shared with either McKay or Weir, it's easiest to see him in relation to his reactions to and interactions with them. I'd personally love to see him in some substantial scenes with Sheppard or Bates or some of the other military, like we got that little peek of him and Ford in Hot Zone. That would be very interesting.

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

I forgot about that scene in Hot Zone. That was the best.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

The only thing I think can be extrapolated from canon easily (without having seen it) is Zelenka vs. Kavanagh. The fact that K is his erm unique self in the face of Weir while Z goes and does what's useful, for example. It should also be more "natural" to write than interaction with Sheppard or Teyla /random

[wickdzoot.livejournal.com]

You do not need more fanfic about Radek, it will only cloud up your poor head.

And I already gave you chapter and verse about why your Radek worked for me and why I lurved on him like I lurve on him on the show.

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

1) I adore Zelenka (Zelenka!), but Zelenka POV makes me wicked nervous. We probably know him better than any of the other secondary characters (I'm counting Beckett as primary, since he's going to join the Opening Credits Kids), yet I'm not sure I've got a grasp on him. (I mean, I'd like to have a grasp on him... *g* < /gratuitous perving>) Do I need more canon? (well, yes, in the perving sense, for sure.) Do I actually need more fanfic about him, as a sort of baseline reinforcement thing? I do not know. Ponder ponder.

I also adore Zelenka, but I'm happier writing him for the reasons you're more nervous - there's less canon to get in the way. Perhaps that's cheating on my part, but I like it.

Now I just wish I could get my writing to line up better with canon.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

i would like to see more of zelenka in season 2. er, it's possible that didn't come across exactly as intended, but hey, whatever else has come to mind works too. *veg*

and otter is very right about mules and thoroughbreds. i promise not to rant about how many really stupid thoroughbreds i've seen. and i don't mean to generalize or offend people who like that breed. but to extend the metaphor....i prefer a working horse with brains and personality. *hugs*

[carolyn-claire.livejournal.com]

Heeee! My Rodney needs a refill. ;)

Zelenka, man, yeah. I don't know if it's never struck me before as much about other characters, or if it's a Zelenka thing, but there are a lot of differing interpretations of the man in fic. Because we know so little about him, I suppose, but many of the interpretations don't even jibe with what little we've been given, IMO. And that's sad, because he gets even better on closer inspection. (heheh) Yep, feelin' the Zelenka love, here, but not ready to write him, yet. (When they were looking up at the opening jumper bay roof, it struck me how much deeper his voice is than Rodney's. And the accent, and, le sigh. :)