Welcome

This blog is new. Brand-spanking new. I've been writing fanfiction for over ten years, and never found an outlet for the frustration; the agony; the absolute awe-inspiring bliss that comes with a new chapter.

 Think I'm exaggerating? I'm not. Taking borrowed characters - either from screen, game or book - and making them act, walk and talk like the real thing inspires everything from anger and misery, to manic laugh-out-loud enthusiasm. Maybe that's just me, but I can't help wondering if anybody else out there feels the same way.

 The blog I'm starting here means that I now have an outlet for this, and hopefully a readership that understands - or will understand - the paradoxes (or is it paradoxi?) that come with taking borrowed characters and putting words in their mouth. The basic problem with this should be obvious: when you write with someone else's characters, you're playing with fire. You're putting words into their mouths, actions into their hands, that have never been seen before. I find myself constantly and frustratingly asking myself: 'is this in character? Would Reno/ The Doctor / whoever honestly say that?'

 The trouble is that there is nobody to answer that question. Characters are fairly liquid. What (let's say it's the Doctor, since that's what I'm working on now) the Doctor says; how he reacts to a situation is just one of several, wildly different reactions he could possibly have. When the Master walks into the room, does the Doctor stay silent? Does he get frustrated? Does he make one of those oh-so-wordy speeches and try to convince the Master that what he's doing is wrong? All are plausible, and we only get to make one choice. I've rewritten scenes of 2000 painfully thought out words and replaced them with a piffling 700 just because of this. I've written the same chapter five times, with the Doctor's mental states as far apart as furious and completely broken. Hovering over the 'upload' button can take minutes of consternation.

 Therefore, this blog - at least for now - will be acting as an anguish-breaker. If that means that I have to weep over my keyboard, and write about how painful it was to write the last chapter, so be it. Whether it interests other people or not depends on whether you write fanfiction, or read my stories. Maybe this is a pompous thing to do, but I honestly have a passion for fanfiction, and having this outlet will make it that much easier; and my choices in my stories easier to understand, for anyone who is interested.