Black Rose (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
darkrosaleen) wrote2014-01-03 05:37 pm
darkrosaleen) wrote2014-01-03 05:37 pm
Entry tags:
baby's first yuletide
I wrote one treat this year, The Sword and the Shield in The Raven Cycle. I got some nice feedback, met some cool people, and wrote an underrepresented pairing with one of my favorite kinks. Will probably sign up for real next year.
Since I love hearing people talk about their writing process, I figured I'd put down a few notes on how this thing came together. I'll spare you a wall of uncut text posted directly to the Yuletide comm, though.
One of my favorite things about this ship is that the power exchange is totally, explicitly canon. Ronan and Gansey both grew up rich in money and in love (although I hope we get more class tension in future books, what with Ronan being so very Catholic and first generation and nouveau riche). They're both such forceful personalities that they should spend all their time exploding at each other, but they have this very easy, secure relationship where Gansey leads and Ronan follows. Ronan is the only person who submits to Gansey's micromanaging, and Gansey is the only person Ronan ever obeys.
Their dominant and submissive dynamic basically wrote itself. The knifeplay was allariadnes_string , who requested hardcore kink in general and Ronan and Gansey taking care of each other in specific. I love reluctant sadists, and I love rough sex as an expression of trust and love and care, and I love that queasy line between liking the hurt and liking the comfort. It was fun to dig out Gansey's more aggressive, possessive, control freak side. This fic is mostly about him dealing with not being able to stop Ronan's suicide attempt, and how Ronan's only allowed to bleed when Gansey cuts him.
This fic is also about how well Ronan knows Gansey, and how he shows his love (upside down and in a dead language, as always). I wrote this with the intent that Ronan can read all of Gansey's inner turmoil, and that he lets Gansey dominate him partly because it makes Gansey feel better. They're both using that rationalization, but I think Ronan's more self-aware. One of the things I adore about them is how neither one second-guesses their role in the relationship, and there's no "but I'm not good enough for you" angst. I wanted Ronan's trust in Gansey and Gansey's trust in himself to be a steady undercurrent, and it makes me really happy that people picked up on that.
Other stuff: I went through two titles in Irish before settling on this one, and I listened almost exclusively to Irish music during the writing process. It wasn't until I'd written the chat about saints and started editing that I remembered there's a reference to stigmata early in the fic. I was unprepared for how sexy Gansey would be covered in blood (Ronan I was totally prepared for). The knife was originally called Faolan, which means wolf. I had some visual inspiration from this (violent and sorta NSFW) as well as the Saint Sebastian tag on Tumblr. I snuck in a few references to Ronan's body hair, because I have an unshakeable headcanon that the Lynch men are all really hairy.
Overall, it was a lot of really intense, stressful fun, and I'm already plotting my requests for next year.
Since I love hearing people talk about their writing process, I figured I'd put down a few notes on how this thing came together. I'll spare you a wall of uncut text posted directly to the Yuletide comm, though.
One of my favorite things about this ship is that the power exchange is totally, explicitly canon. Ronan and Gansey both grew up rich in money and in love (although I hope we get more class tension in future books, what with Ronan being so very Catholic and first generation and nouveau riche). They're both such forceful personalities that they should spend all their time exploding at each other, but they have this very easy, secure relationship where Gansey leads and Ronan follows. Ronan is the only person who submits to Gansey's micromanaging, and Gansey is the only person Ronan ever obeys.
Their dominant and submissive dynamic basically wrote itself. The knifeplay was all
ariadnes_string , who requested hardcore kink in general and Ronan and Gansey taking care of each other in specific. I love reluctant sadists, and I love rough sex as an expression of trust and love and care, and I love that queasy line between liking the hurt and liking the comfort. It was fun to dig out Gansey's more aggressive, possessive, control freak side. This fic is mostly about him dealing with not being able to stop Ronan's suicide attempt, and how Ronan's only allowed to bleed when Gansey cuts him. This fic is also about how well Ronan knows Gansey, and how he shows his love (upside down and in a dead language, as always). I wrote this with the intent that Ronan can read all of Gansey's inner turmoil, and that he lets Gansey dominate him partly because it makes Gansey feel better. They're both using that rationalization, but I think Ronan's more self-aware. One of the things I adore about them is how neither one second-guesses their role in the relationship, and there's no "but I'm not good enough for you" angst. I wanted Ronan's trust in Gansey and Gansey's trust in himself to be a steady undercurrent, and it makes me really happy that people picked up on that.
Other stuff: I went through two titles in Irish before settling on this one, and I listened almost exclusively to Irish music during the writing process. It wasn't until I'd written the chat about saints and started editing that I remembered there's a reference to stigmata early in the fic. I was unprepared for how sexy Gansey would be covered in blood (Ronan I was totally prepared for). The knife was originally called Faolan, which means wolf. I had some visual inspiration from this (violent and sorta NSFW) as well as the Saint Sebastian tag on Tumblr. I snuck in a few references to Ronan's body hair, because I have an unshakeable headcanon that the Lynch men are all really hairy.
Overall, it was a lot of really intense, stressful fun, and I'm already plotting my requests for next year.