News about the creative process #2
May. 14th, 2003 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wiseheartI never worked on a story like I'm working on my Treksmut piece. It's writing itself like a mosaic - all I have are small, scattered pieces that I put down in notebooks and type up without any real coherence. Then I begin to cut and paste the pieces I have, and somehow the story makes headway.
Warning: what comes is long and possibly boring, and should not be read by the faint of the heart. I'm tracking back my own creative process here to understand what I'm actually doing. :)
First I only wanted to write some interspecies m/m action. But I'm the sort of writer who needs a plot. And some well-established characters. So I chose two of my OCs for the part; up till now none of them was meant to have any interest for their own gender. Not in the current phase of their life, anyway.
Then I chose the time of the encounter - five years before the actual story where they have a more or less important role. It was established in my little AU-corner of the Trekkieverse that they had a very important undercover assignment at that time on a remote space station. They were meant to reveal the illegal business of an Orion trader (and slaver), which they eventually did. It was also established that the bad guy in question had the hots for one of the OCs, who worked on the station as an exotic dancer.
From there on I worked with "What if..."s. What if the Bad Guy managet to lay his paws on my OC? Orions are known to trade in illegal drugs and use them on their subjects to make them dependant. What if they gave some of the worst of those drugs to my OC, a mind-altering drug that causes immediate addiction and makes the user sexually dependant on his first bedmate after taking it?
I didn't want to write a rapefic (no, I won't start ranting about how I hate and despise those), so it was clear that the other members of the undercover team had to rescue their commanding officer just in time... well, almost. The next twist was to keep him sane until the big countdown of the operation is finished and they can ship him off to Elba II. or another psychiatric hospital and put him through withdrawal. They can't do it immediately because he's needed for the completion of their mission.
So, how to keep him in a semi-functional state? The drug causes a ravenous sexual hunger in the victim and "imprints" him on the first person he has sex with. *Someone* needs to hop in the sac with the guy (who's the head of the whole operation, BTW). A male someone, due to the specific sort of drug he was given. A male someone with a great deal of stamina.
Most of the undercover team were humans, so they were out of question. But I had one Centaurian officer with them (and no, these have nothing to do with the Centauri of B5 - Roddenberry got Centaurus populated when JMS was still in kindergarten). I created three or four different species for the populated planets of Alpha Centauri, all humanoid, with a few little diferences: males keep their... erm... family jewels safely stored in a pouch until they are needed, plus they have deep red eyes. This particular subspecies - called the Vata'ani - also had very dark skin.
The Centurian officer also has a special training that makes him able to deal with drug addicts in general and with the victims of this special drug in particular. If you often work at the Orion border, you need such skills. So, he hasn't much of a choice than to offer his commanding officer this very special "act of friendship" (which is the title of the story, BTW).
It's funny, actually. Years ago, before the idea of writing about two men going for it with each other would even appear in my mind (and I'd have discard it with disgust at that time, for sure), I put said commanding officer through several unsuccessful het relationships. I wonder if my muse had already known something...
On a different note, Chapter 14 of Elvenhome has written itself yesterday, and I'm already knee-deep in Chapter 15. I hope my inner fangirl will allow me to update during the weekend. She's such a nuisance sometimes.
Also, Archet's birthday is approaching rapidly. But I'm prepared for the big event. The next Boromir installment, Book Seven: Descending to Darkness is up to its 6th chapter. All I have to do is to post regularly.
So, if only Net access keeps steady, it should be smooth sailing.
Warning: what comes is long and possibly boring, and should not be read by the faint of the heart. I'm tracking back my own creative process here to understand what I'm actually doing. :)
First I only wanted to write some interspecies m/m action. But I'm the sort of writer who needs a plot. And some well-established characters. So I chose two of my OCs for the part; up till now none of them was meant to have any interest for their own gender. Not in the current phase of their life, anyway.
Then I chose the time of the encounter - five years before the actual story where they have a more or less important role. It was established in my little AU-corner of the Trekkieverse that they had a very important undercover assignment at that time on a remote space station. They were meant to reveal the illegal business of an Orion trader (and slaver), which they eventually did. It was also established that the bad guy in question had the hots for one of the OCs, who worked on the station as an exotic dancer.
From there on I worked with "What if..."s. What if the Bad Guy managet to lay his paws on my OC? Orions are known to trade in illegal drugs and use them on their subjects to make them dependant. What if they gave some of the worst of those drugs to my OC, a mind-altering drug that causes immediate addiction and makes the user sexually dependant on his first bedmate after taking it?
I didn't want to write a rapefic (no, I won't start ranting about how I hate and despise those), so it was clear that the other members of the undercover team had to rescue their commanding officer just in time... well, almost. The next twist was to keep him sane until the big countdown of the operation is finished and they can ship him off to Elba II. or another psychiatric hospital and put him through withdrawal. They can't do it immediately because he's needed for the completion of their mission.
So, how to keep him in a semi-functional state? The drug causes a ravenous sexual hunger in the victim and "imprints" him on the first person he has sex with. *Someone* needs to hop in the sac with the guy (who's the head of the whole operation, BTW). A male someone, due to the specific sort of drug he was given. A male someone with a great deal of stamina.
Most of the undercover team were humans, so they were out of question. But I had one Centaurian officer with them (and no, these have nothing to do with the Centauri of B5 - Roddenberry got Centaurus populated when JMS was still in kindergarten). I created three or four different species for the populated planets of Alpha Centauri, all humanoid, with a few little diferences: males keep their... erm... family jewels safely stored in a pouch until they are needed, plus they have deep red eyes. This particular subspecies - called the Vata'ani - also had very dark skin.
The Centurian officer also has a special training that makes him able to deal with drug addicts in general and with the victims of this special drug in particular. If you often work at the Orion border, you need such skills. So, he hasn't much of a choice than to offer his commanding officer this very special "act of friendship" (which is the title of the story, BTW).
It's funny, actually. Years ago, before the idea of writing about two men going for it with each other would even appear in my mind (and I'd have discard it with disgust at that time, for sure), I put said commanding officer through several unsuccessful het relationships. I wonder if my muse had already known something...
On a different note, Chapter 14 of Elvenhome has written itself yesterday, and I'm already knee-deep in Chapter 15. I hope my inner fangirl will allow me to update during the weekend. She's such a nuisance sometimes.
Also, Archet's birthday is approaching rapidly. But I'm prepared for the big event. The next Boromir installment, Book Seven: Descending to Darkness is up to its 6th chapter. All I have to do is to post regularly.
So, if only Net access keeps steady, it should be smooth sailing.
