DVD Commentary Meme

[citrusjava]

Via the wonderful balder12 .

I haven't written all that much, but I really like the idea of this meme, so why not :)
(like my memes in general, feel free to change the rules a bit if you want to, no need to ask. Just no triggers and such, please)

Go to my AO3 page or my masterlist (or both, cause I've been bad about updating) and pick a passage from my stories, up to 500 words, and comment to this post with that selection (title or link to the story being excerpted will be very helpful).

I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the characters' heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the story, awful puns [perhaps], and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track. You can ask me anything - character motivation, writing process, or if you disagree with the direction I took in a story, ask me to defend it.

Comments

[frozen_delight]

This is a fun idea. And a nice way of discovering your writing. Here's the passage I'd like to hear more about (whatever comes to your mind, preferably something to do with the books and Sam and Dean's relationship):

It sort of amazed Sam the Men of Letters bothered to put complex dust prevention spells on the place, to create acoustics specific to different book sections, but didn't bother to catalogue most of the books. Particularly with all those junior Men of Letters in training, cheap educated labor force, eager to prove themselves. Sam could imagine spending his summer vacation cataloging, peaceful stacks of books, the whole world muffled in soft carpeting, and all that interesting knowledge and beauty at his fingertips. He would have done that for sure, just for credit the false hope of a chance at a TA position.

Sam shook cobwebs out of his hair, breathing the scent of old paper. It was very close to the scent of the Conroe library he'd spent weeks doing research in when he was twelve, and they were living in Cut and Shoot, Texas. It wasn't urgent research, just a little work to help out Bobby. It had been a kindness to dad, away for weeks hunting near the northern border. A kindness to Sam maybe, made up to keep him occupied while Dean was at work.

He'd spent most of his time curled up between the shelves, not sitting by the neon-lit tables. No one talked to him for hours, for most of the day. Not a lot of people drawn to the ancient languages shelf over summer vacation. It was good. In the evenings Dean would come pick him up, damp and smelling of machine oil, flashing his grin at Sam alone, and they'd walk the five miles back to the motel together, along the highway, as the huge open sky started to contrast against the stars.

The scent was the same, comforting and thick. Almost juicy. Brought back the feeling of thick, unbleached pages under his fingers, the cool scent of metal shelves high above the rich earthy books scents all around. The feel of Dean's roughening hands, black dug into the patterns on his skin, showing off the intricate swirly lines.

It's from "A Cup of Tea Large Enough".

[citrusjava.livejournal.com]

Thanks for checking out my writing! :)

Sam and dBooks:
People talk and write so much about Sam being a people person and Dean being awkward and bad with people. And that's partially true - Sam is much better with people (OK, till season 8, perhaps ). But that might be because Sam handles being around people. He never told Jess who he really was - he doesn't expect people to like him for himself, or all of him at once... Dean does. Dean might not expect people to like things like his fondness of cosplay or less manly stuff - but that's different from feeling you need to be a whole other person. Now, I believe there's a lot of honestly ro Sam's people persona, but I belive Sam doesn't feel he can be himself, feels he's gotta make up a good story, always, always, can never just be Sam (if he even knows what that is). For all that he's the one who left.

I'm not sure about Sam's common characterization as a research geek. So much of Sam's life is about what *has* to be done, about surviving (or not) th forces of evil, and his own family. Sam is so very used to putting his own needs and wants aside. I am not at all sure he knows what they are. Dean has a million quirks and hobbies. I'd really like for Sam to have one. For me, that might involve going back to a vulnerable Sam, that's, of course, still part of our current Sam. So I went with this characterization, even though I'm not sure I accept it, because I wanted Sam to have something of his own, like Dean's room, I wanted something happy and some subjectivity for Sam at the bunker (then Bat Cave). Also, it was so really meaningful that Dan accepted Sam as a researcher - perhaps getting a bit over the whole "Sam leaving for collage " thing - I wanted to go with that.

The Winchesters' relationship:
Hm, one of my favorite things about Dean and Sam's relationship is the way it blurs the lines between gen and shipping (not the only one of course). Most of my stories, I'm not sure how to label. The sit in that special place that is all Dean and Sam's, not entirely on either side of this. So many gen stories absolutely satisfy my shippiness. In Sam and Dean's world, Sam can spend his days waiting to hold this guy's hand and look at the stars, waiting mostly to get this guy's attention on Sam in a way that makes Sam feel loved and special, can notice his scent, the texture of his hands, with such loving familiarity that he remembers it about twenty years later - and still it might not mean "first love" in the sense of "crush", "far away", perhaps not in the sense of "jerking off in the bathroom". Or it could. For me, each option is touching, fresh and wonderful, as well as radical.