writing about writing: degenerate
Oct. 12th, 2016 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yamsthere is nothing i love more than writing about the stories i write. I love detailing my thought processes and my reasons for making certain literary decisions in my stories. There's just something so great about it. Even though I know no one cares, I can't help myself. It doesn't matter what kind of writing it is: original stories, fanfiction, even essays sometimes!
so uh, I'm just going to talk about that. For my own benefit.
I first started writing Degenerate back in May 2012, after my freshman year of college. I think I might have already had a general idea of what I wanted to write, but It was never really actualized. I don't know what lit that spark, but I think it was because I was just lonely. I had a controlling mother, lifelong clinical depression, no plans for the future, and very few allies, and I wanted to envision a character who was capable of actually taking control of her life: someone who had a plan for the future and was determined and confident and had people who cared about her.
Enter Amalia. The initial versions of Amalia were very, very different from her current incarnation. The only words I can really describe her as are annoying and... kinda bitchy? She was still a passive actor in the story, but she was also strangely confrontational and took this weird pleasure in talking down to people. Her family name was Knox instead of Cortes. Amalia Knox had this almost morally superior attitude about everything she did. She also liked debating western philosophy, which kind of played into that attitude. It was just out of place, and not relatable at all unless you're borderline sociopathic (like... me...). Her character was going nowhere.
Sometime in between my initial 45 page draft and 2015, I guess I went in and overhauled the whole story. Basically, I just deleted a whole lotta useless crap. By this time (i think this was 2013?), I had already given Amalia a spinarak, because tbh, the gen 5 starters are OK, but they aren't anything I'd want to write about, y'know? I love ariados.
(and besides, Gen 5 introduced so many great bug types! Amalia's father was always going to be an arachnologist, so giving her a spinarak was just more intuitive)
Hector was also a very different character. Originally, he just appeared at the beginning to take Baconator (tepig's original name) off of Amalia's hands, which would free me from having to write about it. He was a lot less... like he is. Don't get me wrong, he was still kind of a douche, but he was like, 15/16 years old and not very important. At one point, he forced N to help him get in an 18+ halloween party.
I aged him up a couple of years, because of reasons that aren't readily apparent. The only reason the current Hector is a stoner is because I thought it would be hilarious. There was a scene where N and Hector meet and the whole time N was like "why does he smell like damp leaves and shitty incense. why is this smell radiating off of this person so strongly" and then he got in Hector's car where the smell was EVEN STRONGER. Cut to Hector making N man the steering wheel while he tries to light a blunt. hahaha
ok that's all I'm typing for now. I need to go to work. Next time on dragon ball z: I'll probably talk about the plot? idk
so uh, I'm just going to talk about that. For my own benefit.
I first started writing Degenerate back in May 2012, after my freshman year of college. I think I might have already had a general idea of what I wanted to write, but It was never really actualized. I don't know what lit that spark, but I think it was because I was just lonely. I had a controlling mother, lifelong clinical depression, no plans for the future, and very few allies, and I wanted to envision a character who was capable of actually taking control of her life: someone who had a plan for the future and was determined and confident and had people who cared about her.
Enter Amalia. The initial versions of Amalia were very, very different from her current incarnation. The only words I can really describe her as are annoying and... kinda bitchy? She was still a passive actor in the story, but she was also strangely confrontational and took this weird pleasure in talking down to people. Her family name was Knox instead of Cortes. Amalia Knox had this almost morally superior attitude about everything she did. She also liked debating western philosophy, which kind of played into that attitude. It was just out of place, and not relatable at all unless you're borderline sociopathic (like... me...). Her character was going nowhere.
Sometime in between my initial 45 page draft and 2015, I guess I went in and overhauled the whole story. Basically, I just deleted a whole lotta useless crap. By this time (i think this was 2013?), I had already given Amalia a spinarak, because tbh, the gen 5 starters are OK, but they aren't anything I'd want to write about, y'know? I love ariados.
(and besides, Gen 5 introduced so many great bug types! Amalia's father was always going to be an arachnologist, so giving her a spinarak was just more intuitive)
Hector was also a very different character. Originally, he just appeared at the beginning to take Baconator (tepig's original name) off of Amalia's hands, which would free me from having to write about it. He was a lot less... like he is. Don't get me wrong, he was still kind of a douche, but he was like, 15/16 years old and not very important. At one point, he forced N to help him get in an 18+ halloween party.
I aged him up a couple of years, because of reasons that aren't readily apparent. The only reason the current Hector is a stoner is because I thought it would be hilarious. There was a scene where N and Hector meet and the whole time N was like "why does he smell like damp leaves and shitty incense. why is this smell radiating off of this person so strongly" and then he got in Hector's car where the smell was EVEN STRONGER. Cut to Hector making N man the steering wheel while he tries to light a blunt. hahaha
ok that's all I'm typing for now. I need to go to work. Next time on dragon ball z: I'll probably talk about the plot? idk
