Long-abandoned fic: continue as if nothing has changed Real World, or accept that people have moved on no matter their initial enthusiasm and treat new stories as timestamps for a "finished" fic?

I have to admit that part of the reason for me abandoning a project is that I'm a shite writer and my betas were asking so many analytical questions that I didn't have the answers to (among them: "Is this a season 2 character or a season 5?" --Years later, I realized that my answer was "he's the amalgamation of all his seasons to be what I need for this story". Not that is really my beta's fault, but that I found myself painted into a corner of inadequacy, or that our writing methods didn't match up, and I still found myself feeling/being inadequate. The more I analyzed the story, and the less I wrote from the seat of my pants, the drier the inspiration got until I was completely flummoxed and frozen with indecision and hate for the process). And also that I had three stories in one with an arc that would probably, if actually written, top a tens of thousands of words (which, for the fic I like, is not much, except to me), which led to me wondering if I should distill it to one of the three to make it manageable, and then found that they truly were intertwined. For the difficult part of the plotting, I'm trying to get myself back into a "The Winslow Boy" headspace, where the story is "about a trial" but is totally not about a trial and only skirts around that in order to service the real story (and the story that most of my readers had really taken a shine to).

Ah, fuck a duck.

Oh, shit, I did like me some Jensen/Cougar. That was one of the few movie fandoms I read in.

My sister is now thinking of giving up on Brokeback Mountain fic. But I found her some new ones on AO3!

Juliebird, I can only write that long a story because the story is there, knocking on the inside of my skull - not so much hoping someone will open the door but looking for a weak spot to break out of. I'd say, listen to what the story wants. If it feels like the end of tree limb that has broken off because it's already dead inside, then let it go. If it feels like it broke off due to trauma, and there is plenty of sap rising and little twigs starting to grow off the end because it is bursting with life - well you know what to do.

Feel free to tell me to shut it.

If it feels like it broke off due to trauma, and there is plenty of sap rising and little twigs starting to grow off the end because it is bursting with life - well you know what to do.

That's what I feel like with Career Change/Advancement. There's so much there, if I could just get rid of the barrier. I would count that a victory, if I could finish that.

I had planned one more Buffy fanfic, but never got the steam up. It was to be the last in my R-titled series. But I think I realised that my ideas were too grandiose and probably alienating as part of my "thesis", so I never got up steam.

Sometimes (like today, when I re-read Rive because someone kudosed it) I regret that I never even finished it for myself, but it's probably for everyone's benefit.

I just felt extra horrible that one of the reasons I couldn't keep writing was because of my discussions with my beta, whom I really really loved and respected. And I was so hung up on "her process isn't my process" without being able to articulate that because I was hung up on not being able to slot myself into her process successfully. I'm terribly sad that what started as a really good correspondence turned into me second-guessing myself and my right to subject my mediocre, unthought-through ideas on the general public.

I'm still at a stand-still with some point, but hope I can muddle through them, despite my ambition to have villain ambitions that make sense! (I see why this is so hard for many writers: there's a great story, but, damn, now they need to make their antagonist slot into that story, and the antagonist winds up being disserviced).

I finally watched The Losers a few months ago and it was weird because I'd read a ton (pretty much everything I could get my hands on that was good and a lot that was bad) and there was so little Cougar/Jensen interaction. I know some ofthe relationship stuff is pulled from the comic books but I thought there'd be more interaction between then. Also Cougar was way less depressed/broody than I expected (although again I think some of that characterization came from the comics). I'm debating about reading the comics.

Maybe the draw is that movie!Jensen is so mouthy and movie!Cougar is so laconic?

I have that sort of opposites thing that I crave in my ships. Jensen/Cougar satisfied it perfectly, but I admit it was nothing drawn from movie canon. Just a delightful idea I saw played out well on the page a few times.

I think there was one where they were kittens that was unutterably perfect.

And yes, what Julie said--Jensen doesn't have an unexpressed whim, and Cougar is short on words, but not on expressiveness. What he has to communicate gets said.

Oh, shit, I did like me some Jensen/Cougar. That was one of the few movie fandoms I read in.

It's a great pairing.

Maybe the draw is that movie!Jensen is so mouthy and movie!Cougar is so laconic?

Yeah, and they're the ones working/hanging together before Aisha comes into the picture, and Cougar can answer questions and give suggestions with a few well-placed "you are such an idiot and this is a bad idea" looks (I just rewatched it on Saturday), plus he's smooth without trying and Jensen's about as unsmooth as it gets and trying too hard.

I'd watched it (for JDM, as soon as it was out on video, because I failed at movie theatres) before reading anything (comics or fic), and found it appealing, and every so often, I get a craving.

I admit I especially like the ones where Clay and Aisha are in the background (but not too far in the background), breaking rooms and having noisy, argumentative sex, because that's totally a BOGO for me in terms of bulletproof pairing dynamics.