(no subject)
Oct. 31st, 2005 01:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
featherxquillNext door's cat is sitting on my windowsill making noises. WTF? I mean how I am supposed to sleep now? STFU, Stumpy. Just because I sat on the driveway at 3am and patted you for fifteen minutes when I came home drunk on Friday doesn't give you the right to invade my life. Stop clawing at my flyscreen, and go find some cat to kick out of my cats' yard for them. Kthnx.
Anyway. This is not the reason I am posting. I have written fic (waits for the chorus of "OMG we never expected this"). But it is not your normal fic. It is not even written for all the same ficcish reasons. Nano starts in less than twenty four hours. I've written this 'Shipping News' fanfic partly becuse I love the character of the Aunt, partly because I love Annie Proulx's style, partly because I'm procrastinating uni work, but mostly because I wanted play around with this style for myself. I'm testing my ability to capture a character like this - an older woman, a lesbian, with a life and a history and many emotional scars. I would love for those of you who have read the book/seen the film (this fic is a bit of a bastardisation of both, I think, in terms fo what is hinted at in the novel but not said, and what is shown openly in the film). If you haven't read the book or seen the film, I'd love your opinion on the style, and what you think of the character as she would exist in your mind. How well do you understand her?
I'm going to start my attempt to write 50 000 words in one month in less than 24 hours. Would 50 000 words of a style like this work for you? Do I pull it off? Since one of my character's is an artist, I'm thinkinf of the way she might see the world in colours and shades and the way light hits things, etc, and whether I can capture that point of view in words. As for the other two characters, well, I haven't really thought about that yet.
Anway, on with the ficlet. Not even a page on word, won't take up much of your time. I would really love some feedback on this. Hope this doesn't sound like begging. But thanks, anyway, for those of you who take the time.
Happy Ending
Rating: PG?
Character: Agnis Hamm, 'The Shipping News'
Breath mists on the windowpane. She’s lived too long in this world where stories have happy endings. Started to wonder where her own is. Can’t help but miss Irene.
Wishes she could be happy like the dog. Happy with a touch, a scratch, a chewed old ball. Can’t seem to move on through this. Mired in mud. Not like her.
Newfoundlanders don’t dwell on things. They weather storms – rain, hail, snow; gale force winds – keep moving through them. Don’t stop and there’s no time to think.
This is part of her that’s not Newfoundlander. She’s weathered those storms and survived, this is a different kind. Cancer, not drowning. Love for a woman instead of a man. Hates that horrible harsh sounding word people use to label her. Lesbian. Hates it.
Upholsters fiercely. Needle pushing through thick leather hide. Like her skin. Tough, but pierced by a pain as sharp as this.
Some days the storm drowns her.
Some days the dog licks her face and she thinks everything will be okay.
Realises it’s the lack of storms that’s making it so hard. No thrashing seas to mirror her mood. Sea was her friend all those times after he did it to her, snarling and pounding against rocks and roaring like she wanted to. Sat there and watched it and felt like she was making it do that. Sea was her paintbrush, maybe. Sea was her needle. Waves like bandages. Quiet places make the storm rage inside her til she feels like she’ll burst.
Sewing up her own wounds instead. Thick, wiry thread.
~*~
Then something surprising; Mavis bringing the mail in and fingers brushing together. Like silk or fire. A secret smile, promise of something sweeter.
Nip of whiskey after closing time. Shy kiss full of lost lovers and old regrets. Fitting together like jigsaw pieces, delicious completeness she’s missed for a long while. She’ll never forget Irene, and soft curves smoothing her rough edges, will always miss that. But Mavis is angles, all sharp and blunt and made that way by her own storms. Two weather-beaten rocks pushed together by tide.
Upholstering together. Holding her hand and helping her push needle through thick hide. Mending and making anew.
Storm rages against the windows outside. Warm breath catches in hair. Angles and edges make shapes in the sheets. Finally stopped moving. Finds strength in stillness.
Maybe she does have a happy ending.
Anyway. This is not the reason I am posting. I have written fic (waits for the chorus of "OMG we never expected this"). But it is not your normal fic. It is not even written for all the same ficcish reasons. Nano starts in less than twenty four hours. I've written this 'Shipping News' fanfic partly becuse I love the character of the Aunt, partly because I love Annie Proulx's style, partly because I'm procrastinating uni work, but mostly because I wanted play around with this style for myself. I'm testing my ability to capture a character like this - an older woman, a lesbian, with a life and a history and many emotional scars. I would love for those of you who have read the book/seen the film (this fic is a bit of a bastardisation of both, I think, in terms fo what is hinted at in the novel but not said, and what is shown openly in the film). If you haven't read the book or seen the film, I'd love your opinion on the style, and what you think of the character as she would exist in your mind. How well do you understand her?
I'm going to start my attempt to write 50 000 words in one month in less than 24 hours. Would 50 000 words of a style like this work for you? Do I pull it off? Since one of my character's is an artist, I'm thinkinf of the way she might see the world in colours and shades and the way light hits things, etc, and whether I can capture that point of view in words. As for the other two characters, well, I haven't really thought about that yet.
Anway, on with the ficlet. Not even a page on word, won't take up much of your time. I would really love some feedback on this. Hope this doesn't sound like begging. But thanks, anyway, for those of you who take the time.
Happy Ending
Rating: PG?
Character: Agnis Hamm, 'The Shipping News'
Breath mists on the windowpane. She’s lived too long in this world where stories have happy endings. Started to wonder where her own is. Can’t help but miss Irene.
Wishes she could be happy like the dog. Happy with a touch, a scratch, a chewed old ball. Can’t seem to move on through this. Mired in mud. Not like her.
Newfoundlanders don’t dwell on things. They weather storms – rain, hail, snow; gale force winds – keep moving through them. Don’t stop and there’s no time to think.
This is part of her that’s not Newfoundlander. She’s weathered those storms and survived, this is a different kind. Cancer, not drowning. Love for a woman instead of a man. Hates that horrible harsh sounding word people use to label her. Lesbian. Hates it.
Upholsters fiercely. Needle pushing through thick leather hide. Like her skin. Tough, but pierced by a pain as sharp as this.
Some days the storm drowns her.
Some days the dog licks her face and she thinks everything will be okay.
Realises it’s the lack of storms that’s making it so hard. No thrashing seas to mirror her mood. Sea was her friend all those times after he did it to her, snarling and pounding against rocks and roaring like she wanted to. Sat there and watched it and felt like she was making it do that. Sea was her paintbrush, maybe. Sea was her needle. Waves like bandages. Quiet places make the storm rage inside her til she feels like she’ll burst.
Sewing up her own wounds instead. Thick, wiry thread.
Then something surprising; Mavis bringing the mail in and fingers brushing together. Like silk or fire. A secret smile, promise of something sweeter.
Nip of whiskey after closing time. Shy kiss full of lost lovers and old regrets. Fitting together like jigsaw pieces, delicious completeness she’s missed for a long while. She’ll never forget Irene, and soft curves smoothing her rough edges, will always miss that. But Mavis is angles, all sharp and blunt and made that way by her own storms. Two weather-beaten rocks pushed together by tide.
Upholstering together. Holding her hand and helping her push needle through thick hide. Mending and making anew.
Storm rages against the windows outside. Warm breath catches in hair. Angles and edges make shapes in the sheets. Finally stopped moving. Finds strength in stillness.
Maybe she does have a happy ending.
