Mumbling at myself Pt. 2

[misqueue]

So, I've got some last little dangly threads of resolution and foreshadowing I'm trying to pull together. The boys are going to D.C. over Easter weekend, courtesy of Burt. They spend a Friday afternoon & evening with Burt, and then he has to head back to Lima, so K & B are there on their own until Monday.

I've got Burt's acceptance of Blaine into the family as a thing, also Kurt being able to see Burt as an independent entity bigger than being his father (almost like an empty-nest thing, given how Kurt has cared for his Dad, but anyway... he feels their imminent separation briefly, but doesn't dwell on it because his Dad is doing so well in D.C. and Kurt is really proud of him).

Being in a city suits Kurt; he's excited and thinking about the future again. Blaine sees the degree to which being in a city suits Kurt, and is silently sad about it because he sees how Kurt will slip away from him in New York; they have fun anyway. Blaine tries to hold onto Kurt with sex but that isn't what sex is about for Kurt so even as they're connecting with physical intimacy, they're starting to pull apart; Blaine wants to choose Kurt over the world, but Kurt won't make that (false) choice. This conflict is not addressed, though, it stays under the surface.

There's a contrast between Kurt celebrating his Dad's flourishing in Congress and Blaine's fear of Kurt's flourishing in NYC, but it's kind of subtexty too, so, IDK.

This was meant to be light fluffy sexy fun times, but I think it's going to end up a little melancholy. :S

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

So! Your comments, which I appreciate so much, especially the frank ones.

Oh, good, because I mean them in the best possible way. You're an amazing writer, and I'm so noisy because I'm trying to learn from you.

I should learn to write a basic long
form plot before I start breaking the rules. :S

No, no, this was way more fun! :D It's such a cool thing to think about -- why formulas work, but what problematic shit they reinforce at the same time, and how you can get around them while still creating the emotional payoff/catharsis that makes you love a story.

And, you know, this story had multiple incredible payoff moments. That Psyche scene. It's just a good question: what do you pay off where?

I did consider revising the outline to incorporate DWS in a way similar
to what you suggested, but then I thought about it more

Aaaagh, you know what? We're both right. Or both muddled. Or something. Because I agree with everything you said up there about anticlimaxes and the boys' separate arcs and healing cocks -- not to mention the whole cultural brainwashy fat-lady-sings attitude toward penetrative sex in the first place! You did subvert an obnoxious cliché in avoiding a big fight/make-up sex finale, and I'm nodding madly along with your not wanting Kurt's first time bottoming coloured by crisis. You've created a delicious dilemma, from a writer's standpoint: two characters working on two different growth arcs, plus both together working on a third. And their happy endings (well, at least happy resolved cadences before the next movement starts) aren't in sync. It's the opposite of a formulaic romance, in which everybody's stories come to fruition at once. It's a dilemma unique to fandom, being constrained by an evolving canon -- you can't just make Blaine's angst vanish; that wouldn't be right -- but, otoh, such an interesting way to learn the mechanics of original fic.

I'm not sure how I'd resolve it myself, while preserving your set of thematic entanglements (Kurt's fear of being penetrated entangled with his fear of loss, etc.). The pleasures of being the critic, not the writer.

It's also worth noting that, in isolation, any scene is going to be more interesting when it's got some tension in it. One of my all time favourite pieces of meta is resonant's "How to Write a Sex Scene", in which she explains that the one thing she never does (in a long piece) is have her lovers sit down, talk it out, declare their eternal love...and then have sex. Boooorrring. You always want to leave something unresolved, something -- besides an orgasm -- for them to want. Like any good advice, this is not always true, but often. But it does let me appreciate the final sex scene in ITWOS by itself. Maybe the thing to do is make his turmoil more apparent to the reader, and have Kurt misinterpret it as something else. *ponder*

I was overly preoccupied with Keat's "Ode to Psyche" and Don
Henley's "End of the Innocence" at this point in the writing.

!!! Oh, god, what a set. Both simultaneously love songs and songs of mourning, Götterdämmerung. I love it.

I've got the impression that Chris is happy
to go shirtless. (Didn't he even ask to in the bed scene in TFT?)

Hee. I don't usually follow celebrities with much interest, but Colfer as a celebrity is amazing. I've been so enthralled and entertained by his active, gleeful management of his transformation from virginal little pudding cup to...not. (Yeah, I have a vague recollection of him saying he was 'prepared' to go shirtless, for art, bless the commitment.)

<3 Safe trip.

[misqueue]

I want to leave you a lengthier, thinkier reply, but it may need to wait until I'm on the other side of my plane trip, but thank you again.

I'm taking this sentiment on board for my epilogue writing: "Maybe the thing to do is make his turmoil more apparent to the reader, and have Kurt misinterpret it as something else." It's a tricky thing to balance, but you give me confidence that I can do it. :)