I just wanted to check in and say hi. Hi. I haven't slept in 25 hours. Well, I may have gotten between 1 and 2 hours sleep this morning from 6am till 8, but I felt like I was awake the entire time. Not fun.
I did start writing chapter 20 of The Energy of Hidden Emotion's last night. I had 'started' this chapter about 3 days ago when I wrote "Chapter 20, TEHE" at the top of my google doc, but I never actually got any further than that. I just couldn't get a good hooking point into the story, even though I basically know every little thing that is going to happen from here till the end.
And then, I got an image in my head. It was of Matilda sitting scrunched up on the couch typing into her laptop while Jenny watched her covertly. So finally I had something to run with.
I have realized that imagery is a fundemental reason for me to write anything. I get an image in my head, and then I write the story that explains that image. For instance, the image that inspired "Thorns" was of Utena spread open, unable to move, bound by thorny vines that bit into her flesh, and uttterly angry. The image was X-rated and wonderful. I was absolutely driven to explain it on paper.
"Queer Americans" is similarly driven by an X-rated image; the image of Jake, dressed as a boy, sliding to 'his' knees and undoing Hamilton's belt and pants. Implicet is the implication that Hamilton does not know 'his' secret. I haven't finished this fic yet, although I do intend to do it sometime after I have finally completed the Matilda fic. In writing Jake as an FTM, I want to show the sexual side of being transgendered. I want Hamilton to come to terms with the fact that he likes Jake as a boy, and that this means he is not a kinsey 0.
"Words" my newest The Facts of Life fanfic is driven by the image of Jo embracing her inner butch. I haven't watched very much of the series, but I find the scenes where she is trying to fit in as feminine girl painful and awkward and way too much like my own attempts at doing the same. I will continue this story about Jo in a sequels for sure. The other thing I want to explore is Blair's homophobia. In the very first episode of the show, in the first season before it got 'reimagined," Blair mercilessly picked on a baby butch girl for being 'different,' for telling girls she loved them, and being too touchy feely. As far as I can tell, Blair's homophobia is pretty much forgotten by most people who write Jo/Blair. This is understandable, because Blair from the first season is fairly different from Blair from the later seasons, and a lot of people simply consider the show to have started in the second season with "The New Girl" when Jo arrived. But I think the idea of Blair being homophobic is too good of a plot device to pass up. So, I guess you can 'look forward' to that whenever I get around to writing it.