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My fic is what goes down, that's what
Oh my god. The What Goes Down sequel is done, done, done. I got 4500 words written today (including a 1000 word smutty coda) to finish off the series, which clocks in at about 30,000 words. Which ... is way longer than I expected it to be. That makes it almost as long as the first series, when it was originally supposed to be a short sequel to finish off the universe. I failed at both, it seems, since I have ideas for at least four more things I really want to write in the 'verse. (Including yet another sequel. Sigh. I'm starting to fear becoming one of those badfic authors who keeps posting chapter after chapter of these epic series, so to read anything they post you have to go over 100,000 words of other stuff. Only, I hope this isn't badfic. Really, really hope. I like it, but maybe my taste isn't as good as I think it is.)
Anyway, it's done! I still need to type it all up, since it's currently sitting on 60 pages of a notebook, but I look forward to being able to post it soon.
It turned out not quite the way I'd planned, and that doesn't just include the length. I actually started outlining (and writing) it a month or so after I finished What Goes Down, which is more than a year and a half ago now, and it was going to stick a lot more closely to canon; the main mystery was going to be a riff off something that had happened in canon, and even the subplot was inspired by a particular bit of canon. But when I went to revive it, that didn't really work for me; with the mystery being such a large part of the story, I wanted to have at least some suspense to it, and that just wasn't there with the original plot. And no matter how much I liked my take on it, I didn't want to stick too closely to canon events.
I did that with the first arc of What Goes Down, and it was necessary then, since the story picked up at a point in canon where the first mystery had already been introduced. But there were still parts of the story where I think I stuck too closely to canon, and could have branched out; still included those points, but in a much different way. And then the second arc, of course, branched off completely from canon, and I felt that returning to one of the canon arcs now would have been a step backwards. So I scrapped it - the mystery and the subplot both - and rewrote the entire thing, and I'm much happier with the new story.
I'm also thinking about finishing off the meta I wrote for the series. I wrote up a commentary for the first arc of What Goes Down, and never ended up finishing it; mostly, it was a quick summary of the plot with an explanation of how the story fit into season three canon, and it was interesting-slash-useful in determining exactly what was and wasn't changed by the events of the fic. So I might end up finishing that for What Goes Down, since some of it is kind of important (though not necessary; if I've done my job right, you should be able to figure out what's going on just by reading the fic), and maybe for the sequel. Although that might necessitate a rewatch of season three, which I've kind of been considering anyway. We'll see.
And the fic has a coda, which carries on directly from the last scene. Technically, I could have included it in the fic itself, but it didn't feel like it fit the tone (for various reasons), and I think it works well enough as a stand-alone. But I also felt like it was necessary to write, after everything that happened in the series, and I'm glad I did. I'm also quite happy with it, given that it's smut, which I'm not usually so confident in writing, but it includes quite a bit of dialogue, which I am. Take that, lack of confidence! A bit of dirty talk solves everything.
Also, does anyone remember when I posted a while ago about a hypothetical High School Musical dance game? Well, it isn't hypothetical any more! It turns out is actually exists, which is AWESOME, and even more awesome is that J brought it home for me today! Which is a totally excellent reward for finishing my fic.
Anyway, it's done! I still need to type it all up, since it's currently sitting on 60 pages of a notebook, but I look forward to being able to post it soon.
It turned out not quite the way I'd planned, and that doesn't just include the length. I actually started outlining (and writing) it a month or so after I finished What Goes Down, which is more than a year and a half ago now, and it was going to stick a lot more closely to canon; the main mystery was going to be a riff off something that had happened in canon, and even the subplot was inspired by a particular bit of canon. But when I went to revive it, that didn't really work for me; with the mystery being such a large part of the story, I wanted to have at least some suspense to it, and that just wasn't there with the original plot. And no matter how much I liked my take on it, I didn't want to stick too closely to canon events.
I did that with the first arc of What Goes Down, and it was necessary then, since the story picked up at a point in canon where the first mystery had already been introduced. But there were still parts of the story where I think I stuck too closely to canon, and could have branched out; still included those points, but in a much different way. And then the second arc, of course, branched off completely from canon, and I felt that returning to one of the canon arcs now would have been a step backwards. So I scrapped it - the mystery and the subplot both - and rewrote the entire thing, and I'm much happier with the new story.
I'm also thinking about finishing off the meta I wrote for the series. I wrote up a commentary for the first arc of What Goes Down, and never ended up finishing it; mostly, it was a quick summary of the plot with an explanation of how the story fit into season three canon, and it was interesting-slash-useful in determining exactly what was and wasn't changed by the events of the fic. So I might end up finishing that for What Goes Down, since some of it is kind of important (though not necessary; if I've done my job right, you should be able to figure out what's going on just by reading the fic), and maybe for the sequel. Although that might necessitate a rewatch of season three, which I've kind of been considering anyway. We'll see.
And the fic has a coda, which carries on directly from the last scene. Technically, I could have included it in the fic itself, but it didn't feel like it fit the tone (for various reasons), and I think it works well enough as a stand-alone. But I also felt like it was necessary to write, after everything that happened in the series, and I'm glad I did. I'm also quite happy with it, given that it's smut, which I'm not usually so confident in writing, but it includes quite a bit of dialogue, which I am. Take that, lack of confidence! A bit of dirty talk solves everything.
Also, does anyone remember when I posted a while ago about a hypothetical High School Musical dance game? Well, it isn't hypothetical any more! It turns out is actually exists, which is AWESOME, and even more awesome is that J brought it home for me today! Which is a totally excellent reward for finishing my fic.