In honor of Gaia... fic departing the fandom.

[icarus]

As you all must have heard by now, gaiaanarchy is posting her last unfinished SGA fics and leaving the fandom. Usually when I read dramatic departures, well, I remember my friend Red who left an old forum of mine. Annually. But Gaia I believe because her motivating forces are pretty strong (a 29,000 word story and only one review? Ouch). And she's also putting her WIPs out on the front lawn as a sort of SGA yard sale -- without the tags that read "50 cents or best offer."

I'm not departing the fandom but I do have a WIP to put out on the front lawn. Or rather, part of a WIP. But it is complete. In a way. At least... you have the ending. It's been in front of you the whole time, like that Easter Egg that's in the most obvious place that no one ever finds.

A year ago I wrote a story called Last Port Of Call. It was only the first part of a (roughly) 24-part long fic. There was a storm of controversy at the time with a lot of interesting feedback that would probably make my year if I were doing a thesis in Psychology and Gender Relations. I had enough material for a guaranteed A, I'm sure of it.

I never told anyone (well, okay, I told auburnnothenna) but at the same time I posted it (and by same time, I mean the same day), I also posted my story outline for the rest of the story.

Yep. That's right. I gave away the rest of the story. Without telling anyone that's what I did.

You see, when I told people that I knew that they'd like Last Port Of Call as a whole once it was complete -- I really knew. Because the same people who hated the first part loved the story outline. Yes, I do know, because you reviewed it and you told me you loved it. (ETA: It took a tremendous amount of discipline on my part to not point this out to you guys at the time, to put the story first before winning an argument. But I'm writer first and foremost and I'm not going to spoil my own reveal, no matter how tempting.)

The story outline was About 10 Days Before The Wraith Attack.

I even used a little of the same dialogue. I thought for sure that would give it away.

Part of why I posted the outline was that I was afraid the story was so big, and so difficult, that I would never finish it, and I wanted everyone to know the end. At the same time, I didn't admit it because I still wanted to give Last Port Of Call the good ol' college try. After I posted them I thought, "Okay. I'm going to have a little fun with this." I planned to post Last Port Of Call as a WIP and see who figured it out. (There was one person who did just from what I posted, noting with tongue-in-cheek that it was the same premise with even the same dialog. Ding-ding-ding, you win a prize, you smart cookie.)

It was going to be cool because About 10 Days Before The Wraith Attack was John's perspective with 20/20 hindsight, his gloss of events, while Last Port Of Call was the LP of what really happened. Both were going to be written from a very tight John viewpoint. It started to turn into an interesting exploration of memory and how we re-write it in hindsight.

But after the storm, I found that the story had changed in my mind. There was a fierce demand to write Rodney's point of view and I felt a need to defend the story rather than writing it as I intended. I wrote a second chapter... and it came out from Rodney's point of view, which really wasn't the story but rather an answer to the unhappy women who criticized it. It had changed and... wasn't that exploration of memory any more. It shrank and became just what people wanted. It made people happy. Gave those who needed to see Rodney's perspective what they wanted. But I'd lost the structural integrity of the story.

So here you go. Here's the ending of Last Port Of Call.

Comments

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

Huh. I know I friended because I had just finished what was posted of Out of Bounds and I wanted to make sure I caught the next part, but the first time I ever considered it, it was because of Last Port of Call. I loved it.

I loved it so much, that I didn't even really notice or "mind" that About 10 Days Before the Wraith Attack (which I don't think I read the same day, or even noticed was written by the same person *is thick* for awhile) was the "same" story. It was like enjoying a book so much you read all of the different editions. I remember commenting when I found Last Port of Call (or was it 10 Days? Er) and hoping that you would write more, you replied that you were concerned that if you continued it, it wouldn't be as good. Sequel Syndrome and all that. But with Rodney's POV, I got exactly what you said, I got what I wanted. It was a little bit of closure.

Writing is hard. Reviewing is hard. Both actions have you put yourself out there at the mercy of whoever happens by. I know I sometimes refrain from commenting because I can't manage to say exactly what I want and I hate being misconstrued. That being said, I think I'm going to go clear out my 'to review' folder. /guilt

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that Last Port Of Call was the better story of the two. And yeah, when you asked about it, it was at the point where the story was really changing.

It was... hard to get that deep into John's POV that I saw nothing else and let him completely take the wheel. With worries piling up about the story, I don't think I could have done it.

But, I swear, people just wanting to hear Rodney's POV had no effect on it. It was the anger and the accusations of John date-raping Rodney (as if he were a real person) that were the problem.

Icarus

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Huh, I think I missed the Ten Days story (but I don't generally read the Flashfic comm, especially not lately. *snob*). Interesting, this.

Paying taxes is a unifying experiences fundamental to democracy and the rule of law.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Appropo of nothing, I actually read the first line of the IRS tax manual. This is really funny!

Okay, back to the subject at hand....

I never promoted it much. It just went in the Flashfic and my site -- and that's it. I sort of wanted to sweep it under the rug. *sheepish*

Icarus