understanding astrophysics: the cargument

The reason why The Cargument, as I've lovingly dubbed it, is one of my favourite scenes in Understanding Astrophysics is because one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to writing is intensity. If you're even vaguely familiar with anything I write, you know that it's all low stakes, low tension, low angst stuff, so scaling it up for this fic was for sure one of the most challenging things I've ever written. The first draft of this scene was done all in one night, the first half furiously scrawled out on a sheet of 1/16 in grid paper, the rest typed up in an OhWrite room at the speed of light (150 wpm). I had 10 assignments looming over me, I'd been ghosting Rose, my beta, for over a week, and Mercury had just entered retrograde. The fact that I managed to crank this out, and the fact that the next day, I leaned back in my desk and thought, "Well shit. This isn't half bad." was a miracle on Earth. ( Read more... )

understanding astrophysics: the confession

Genuinely, I didn't start liking The Confession until after I published it and comments kept saying how much they enjoyed it. I thought it was too monologue-y, with random humour that detracted from the tone, and it didn't balance the plot elements of interest well, and no matter how much Rose, my beta, gassed it up, I couldn't help but despise this scene. I was like, three days away from the fest deadline, though, so I submitted it and rolled with the punches. Confession scenes have always been hard for me because it involves a level of intimacy with the characters I don't always feel like I have, especially with something so close to IRL like idolverse. After seeing the warm reception though, I'm glad I kept it the way I did. ( Read more... )