Christmas For Every Boy and Girl

JuliaM

Project QL Intern
Aug 16, 2004
820
0
16
Massachusetts
www.seshatplace.com
I've been working on a Christmas themed fan fiction and just completed it tonight. I'm kind of happy with myself because not only is this the longest piece of fictional work I've ever written but I managed to get it done 10 days sooner than the date I'd set as a goal to have it finished. I've posted it on my website.

Christmas For Every Boy and Girl
 
Oh boy, your story really put me in a Christmas mood. Helen is right in saying you captured the characters well. I could totally hear Al's voice in my head as I was reading it. I could even imagine Sam's next leap home! Thank you. I loved it.
 
Thank you all. This story was a labor of love for me and I'm so happy that I got it done.

I could totally hear Al's voice in my head as I was reading it.

Thank you for saying this. Al is actually the harder of the two to write for me and I'm never quite sure how well I've captured him so thank you for letting me know that I have managed to capture him.

It did, however, take me a while to get over the fact that Sam punched a 13 year old kid, lol.

I thought about that after I wrote. It was a "heat of the moment" thing - a reflex from some trying to hit Sam.
 
jmoniz said:
I thought about that after I wrote. It was a "heat of the moment" thing - a reflex from some trying to hit Sam.

Yeah, I know. It just caught me off guard. I was like :hair, "he hit a kid!", but I would instinctively throw a punch back if that happened to me. hehe.

Samantha Beckett
 
Jmoniz, I agree Al is harder to write for me too.

I think it is natural for Sam to have hit the kid, in the confusion of a new leap, and having been hit first.

Guys, if you think this is bad, you should read what I make Sam do in my latest story!!! *shameless plugosity*
Soon to be published at www.fanfiction.net it is called "Snake in the Grass" and is number four in my five story pre-MI arc.
 
leaper1 said:
Jmoniz, I agree Al is harder to write for me too.

Glad to know I'm not the only one. I think I can relate to Sam a bit better than I can Al and that's why I find Sam so much easier to write.

leaper1 said:
I think it is natural for Sam to have hit the kid, in the confusion of a new leap, and having been hit first.

That was my exact thinking. Sam had just leaped in and really hadn't acclimated to who, what, or where. He never really did take a look at Danny to see who it was he'd chased and then hit until after the fact. A total relfex thing - someone had stolen from him and taken a swing at him so he swung back.

leaper1 said:
Guys, if you think this is bad, you should read what I make Sam do in my latest story!!! *shameless plugosity*
Soon to be published at www.fanfiction.net it is called "Snake in the Grass" and is number four in my five story pre-MI arc.

So, how long will we have to wait to read it?
 
See, I'm the exact opposite. Al is sooooo much easier for me to write than Sam. But it's not for having much in common with him. I'm not quite sure WHAT it is, actually.
 
It's kinda easy for me to write for both of them because I write my stories like I am performing a play. Let me explain. I am a theater student and aspiring actress and the way that I write is that I study the characters (i.e. watching the show and picking up on little details about them), and then become the character as if I were Sam or Al and speak as they would. It's weird, I have been writing stories since i was real little and whenever I would hit writers block, I would (seriously, now) act out the scenes in my bedroom when I went to bed and try several different ways it could go before I was able to break thru the block and keep writing. Writing and characterization comes natural for me because of my theater studies.

Samantha Beckett
 
jmoniz said:
So, how long will we have to wait to read it?

It is in the final editing stages now, and awaiting a proof read on the last couple of chapters from my wonderful, helpful, unpaid office assistant ;) JR

Hopefully, I should be able to start posting early in the new year, which *hint hint* gives those of you who have not yet read them the chance to catch up on the first three stories in the arc:
Terror Firma
High Hopes (the one I gave to Dean)
and
Run for their Lives

I would (seriously, now) act out the scenes in my bedroom when I went to bed and try several different ways it could go before I was able to break thru the block and keep writing.

I have done something very similar on numerous occassions. I usually try to visualize each scene playing out on the blank wall behind my computer as I write, but when a scene gives me trouble, I often 'act it out'. And yes, I was a Drama major at college.
I also have a very helpful son, who helps me to choreograph all my fight scenes. Thanks, Bob, you are a great help!
 
leaper1 said:
It is in the final editing stages now, and awaiting a proof read on the last couple of chapters from my wonderful, helpful, unpaid office assistant ;) JR

Hopefully, I should be able to start posting early in the new year, which *hint hint* gives those of you who have not yet read them the chance to catch up on the first three stories in the arc:
Terror Firma
High Hopes (the one I gave to Dean)
and
Run for their Lives

Those are yours?! They're awesome! :D



leaper1 said:
I have done something very similar on numerous occassions. I usually try to visualize each scene playing out on the blank wall behind my computer as I write, but when a scene gives me trouble, I often 'act it out'. And yes, I was a Drama major at college.
I also have a very helpful son, who helps me to choreograph all my fight scenes. Thanks, Bob, you are a great help!

When I directed a one act play my senior year of high school, I choreographed everything, but doing the fight scenes were great. I would sit in my first period class where I was a student aid with two pencils (they were the character's weapons) and plan every move. My teacher later told me that he almost laughed several times when he saw me beating two pencils together in the corner. I love going inside my head and visualizing how it would pan out.

Samantha Beckett
 
Samantha_Beckett said:
Those are yours?! They're awesome! :D

Samantha Beckett


:eek: Gosh, thank you. I have been privileged to have a lot of positive feedback on them, and I must say that next to my two children, they are my proudest productions. I'm so glad I took the plunge to put them 'out there, not just because I love writing stories about Sam and Al, but because writing them and posting them has led me to places like Al's and to wonderful friends.

I fear this new one will upset many fans, and could well be a 'love it or hate it' split, but I shall stand by it no matter what. It is one of those stories that has undergone a fairly major rewrite of one scene thanks to Jennie's input, and despite my initial devastation that she didn't like it 'as was', she was as usual bang on the money, and it is a much better scene for incorporating her suggested changes.

I can identify with your pencil fight, I have been caught 'acting out' scenes once or twice, and they can take some explaining!
 
leaper1 said:
I can identify with your pencil fight, I have been caught 'acting out' scenes once or twice, and they can take some explaining!

That's why, except for the pencils, I always wait to do that until everyone else goes to bed. No witnesses...hehe.

Samantha Beckett
 
leaper1 said:
It is in the final editing stages now, and awaiting a proof read on the last couple of chapters from my wonderful, helpful, unpaid office assistant ;) JR

Hopefully, I should be able to start posting early in the new year, which *hint hint* gives those of you who have not yet read them the chance to catch up on the first three stories in the arc:
Terror Firma
High Hopes (the one I gave to Dean)
and
Run for their Lives

I'll definitely be looking forward to it. I've enjoyed your other stories - and apologize because I've never said so. I guess being unemployed was good for something 'cause it gave me a chance to read them.

I'm hoping sometime after Christmas or early in the new year I'll get a chance to work on my next story idea. I've got the idea of what I want to do but finding the time to write more than a sentence or two right now is similar to looking for that needle in a haystack. I know that if I can't just sit and devote and hour or two to writing at a time the end product isn't going to be all the great since it won't have any flow. As it is, I can go back and look at what I've written in the past and can generally pick out exactly where it was I stopped and started writing.
 
Continuity flow

jmoniz said:
I'll definitely be looking forward to it. I've enjoyed your other stories - and apologize because I've never said so. I guess being unemployed was good for something 'cause it gave me a chance to read them.

I'm hoping sometime after Christmas or early in the new year I'll get a chance to work on my next story idea. I've got the idea of what I want to do but finding the time to write more than a sentence or two right now is similar to looking for that needle in a haystack. I know that if I can't just sit and devote and hour or two to writing at a time the end product isn't going to be all the great since it won't have any flow. As it is, I can go back and look at what I've written in the past and can generally pick out exactly where it was I stopped and started writing.

Thank you for your comments, and apologies that I seem to have hijacked your story thread! Not my intention.

I would love to have a couple of hours uninterrupted to write, but it just NEVER happens. I'm not sure how noticeable the lack of flow is to my readers, but I'm lucky if I get five minutes at a stretch. Editing is a bigger nightmare - trying to check for continuity when you end up reading the same paragraph six times due to constant distractions is a nightmare. But we work with what we have. I guess that is one reason why a couple of my stories have been over 10 years in the making!
 
leaper1 said:
Thank you for your comments, and apologies that I seem to have hijacked your story thread! Not my intention.

You're welcome and don't worry about hijacking the thread since you certainly didn't. That's just the way of conversations, they'll just meander where they want.

leaper1 said:
I would love to have a couple of hours uninterrupted to write, but it just NEVER happens. I'm not sure how noticeable the lack of flow is to my readers, but I'm lucky if I get five minutes at a stretch. Editing is a bigger nightmare - trying to check for continuity when you end up reading the same paragraph six times due to constant distractions is a nightmare. But we work with what we have. I guess that is one reason why a couple of my stories have been over 10 years in the making!

The most I can usually string together at a stretch is about an hour when at lunch at work. I definitely take what I can get get, though, when I get it. Today I ended up writing while on the subway coming home. I hadn't planned on doing any writing until after the holidays but this morning going in to work I got an idea for a story (different from what I had been planning to write) and it wouldn't let me be until I started to write it out. I knocked off about 5 pages while I was at lunch and then what I wrote on the subway coming home. Now whether or not I can read what I actually wrote on the way to incorporate it in the story is another matter entirely. Between not having very good handwriting to begin with and the swaying and jouncing of the subway car it doesn't make for a very legible copy.
 
leaper1 said:
But we work with what we have. I guess that is one reason why a couple of my stories have been over 10 years in the making!

:lol: I can relate! *cough*Beth*cough*