(no subject)

[vr_trakowski]

 Because I'm curious...a meme, snaffled from astrogirl2and slightly expanded.  If Penn O'Hara reads this, I know what she's gonna say!  *grin*

What would you say are the trademarks of my writing? What themes or quirks or turns of phrase have you noticed? What is it that makes a story by me -- well, a story by me?  What habits do you think I should break? 

I'm tagging cincoflexand dreams_of_him specifically to do this meme themselves, because I am curious, but if someone else wants to pick it up, by all means feel free. 

Comments

[dreams-of-him.livejournal.com]

OK, a VR story usually has a rich and economical use of language. The plot is clever or if rather more mundane, then so beautifully written as to overcome its ordinary nature.

I know this is not very detailed, but these qualities cover so much territory...

Oh, you have a rather unfortunate fondness for puns. *cough*

Is this what you had in mind?

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Ouch for my bad phrasing! What I meant was, I am tagging you folks to do the meme for yourselves if you want--I'm curious as to what people will say about your writing. I shall rephrase.

But thanks! *blush* And I agree with you about the puns, if not their misfortune. But then the beauty of a pun is in the "oy" of the beholder...

[dreams-of-him.livejournal.com]

Oh, I knew what you meant...I've already posted the meme in my journal. Wail, baby...

>:)

Too bad there's no cure for that...

Interesting idea...

[plkphoto.livejournal.com]

Well, I was going to respond to this a couple days ago when I first saw this meme, but then I went to your webpage to look up a couple things and accidentally reread Rollercoaster, which of course meant that I had to reread Halfway to the Moon... so here I am 4 days later actually responding to your post... (I still love those two stories, BTW.)

Hmmm... I agree with dreams_of_him on the main qualities. I love the fact that even your clichés aren't really... Sure you take the basic premise of the cliché, but then you give it this VR twist that completely changes the whole thing and makes it so much fun to read. Also, your way often seems much more true to the characters than the usual treatment of a cliché, since I don't think either Griss or Sara would respond normally in one of those situations.

My favorite thing about your writing is the way you intertwine episodes in with original writing to create a new but plausible world. I love the way you worked the episodes into your storyline when Griss and Sara returned to LV in In the Center. And I really like your short interpretive pieces for the episodes (like the shaving scene in Cuts both Ways).

I also really love it when you have these short little passing comments that invoke entire backstories from the episodes. For example, I loved the line in Codex where Dumbo/Bruno is sniffing Sara's hand and detects "Clean sweat, kindness, an overlay of some sour fruit, and a hint of some other Person." My mind instantly goes -- "hmmm lemons! must have been a decomp or other foul smelling job today!" You do this a lot, and I really enjoy it. It gives an extra dimension to your stories for those of us who have ...er... paid attention to (read: memorized) the entire backstory of the characters and any quirks they might have.

I also really like the geek mind-meld moments you give us... when either Griss or Sara picks up on what the other is thinking without any cues that would be detectable to the average Joe. For example, in In the Center first Grissom realizing that Sara had discovered that his mom was deaf by her reaction to the flashing lights, then later her realizing that he had realized it (?) by his casual comment. Same story, later on, the whole "I know drinking isn't the problem" wine and wine glasses at Griss's for dinner.

You've got the characters pegged! ...as most recently evidenced by the amazing similarities between "Dead Doll" and your Horizon.

Umm... I like the puns!

Bad habits.... hmmm... can't think of any off the top of my head... nope, none deeper in either...

I definitely wouldn't mind seeing your take on the whole "how they got together" now that we have a timeline (i.e. 2 or 9 years ago). A story like In the Center going through Season 5 and the start of Season 6... :-)

PLK (http://community.livejournal.com/geekfiction/tag/plkphoto)

Re: Interesting idea...

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks for all the compliments! I do enjoy mixing an episode into a story, and I'm glad you like the cliches--sometimes they're just too insistent. *grin* It can be fun to find a way to remake them, so to speak.

I'm very glad you find them in-character. That's one of the things most important to me.