GBB second check-in
Apr. 3rd, 2016 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whit_merule posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gabrielbigbangHi all! It's time for our second check-in!
Just as a reminder, our writers' first drafts are due on May 15 2016. Just over a month! Oh no! I mean... everything's under control, right? Right?
So, this second check-in is not compulsory, but it's strongly encouraged for purposes of Touching Base (you may leer if necessary). And this time you get to share a snippet of your fic!
Please answer the questions below in a comment - and add anything else you feel like adding - then share a snippet, of not-too-long length. (Look at me being completely pedantic.)
1. Have you started the story yet?
2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline?
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story?
4. Why is a blackboard?
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens?
Just as a reminder, our writers' first drafts are due on May 15 2016. Just over a month! Oh no! I mean... everything's under control, right? Right?
So, this second check-in is not compulsory, but it's strongly encouraged for purposes of Touching Base (you may leer if necessary). And this time you get to share a snippet of your fic!
Please answer the questions below in a comment - and add anything else you feel like adding - then share a snippet, of not-too-long length. (Look at me being completely pedantic.)
1. Have you started the story yet?
2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline?
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story?
4. Why is a blackboard?
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens?
no subject
Date: 2016-04-03 11:34 am (UTC)2. yes!
3. I actually finished it. I am having trouble finding someone to read through it, but oh well. I still have a month
4. Upside down, Miss Jane
5. the bullet hovers until the cameras are around
no subject
Date: 2016-04-03 01:25 pm (UTC)2. ...um, I'm still missing 9 chapters T_T but I really really want to finish this fic by May 15!
3. Uni! And lack of inspiration, but hey, spring has come, days are warmer and everything is blooming. If that's not a boost in morale, then I don't know what is. (Oh, yeah, maybe inspiration would be even better, but I'm getting there)
4. That's clearly some tv show\series\movie reference that went right over my head. Sorry.
5. We don't see it either. Or, that bullet magically takes a shortcut to get into the frame and kill some unsuspecting dude or chick XD
And the snippet (from chapter 3):
“This is a lot for two persons,” Sam says, taking a seat opposite the oldest being in creation. “Do you always eat this much?” And he can’t help the swift once-over he gives Death.
The entertained glint returns to his timeless eyes. “I assure you, we do not overindulge ourselves with this much food every day. There is enough for three persons and you are still growing.”
“I’m twenty-seven!” Sam protests.
Death doesn’t bat an eyelid. “Still a child.” Sam scoffs and resists the urge to cross his arms and pout like the child that he most definitely is not. “You need sustainability. The day is not yet over.”
“Fine,” Sam grumbles unenthused. He looks around the kitchen. “Where’s Gabriel? Isn’t he eating with us?”
Death takes a burrito from a nearby paper plate and transfers it into his own.
“He had to make a couple of phonecalls. He will join us when he will have finished,” Death says, taking a bunch of french fries and adding them to the burrito. “Now, eat.”
Sam suppresses his chuckles, dipping his head as he starts to pile his own plate with food. “Bossy when I’m eating, too,” he murmurs, completely aware that Death is able to hear him.
“I never stop being bossy.” The notes of amusement are there in Death’s tone of voice and Sam just smiles in response.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-03 07:45 pm (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? Less and less every day. Especially since I kind of convinced myself it was in June.
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? Complete and total writers' block right now (probably linked to a not-great mental state rn)
4. Why is a blackboard? Why not?
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens? Apparently, she is mysteriously mauled and left in a bathtub for the (apparently) straight white cis male characters to find.
“We’ll just have to hit the offices at the same time as the factory,” Karen said simply. “That should be simple enough, shouldn’t it? You’ve done a mass exorcism before, haven’t you?”
“Well, yeah,” Dean said gruffly, “but that was just a little sheriff’s station, and they had a PA system.”
She smiled at him; a little smile that Sam was sure meant she thought Dean was being difficult on purpose.
“There will be a way to acquire enough information to carry out a simultaneous strike,” Cas said. “After all, I am sure we need not worry about the possibility of the virus being present in their offices.”
“But they know my face,” Dean said, “and you’re still all shiny and supernatural.”
Karen cleared her throat delicately.
“No.”
Bobby and Dean spoke simultaneously, both vehement in their objections. Karen just looked unimpressed.
“Bobby, tell your boys what my job was,” she said sweetly.
“Karen, I…”
‘Tell them.”
Bobby sighed and shifted uncomfortably. “After we got married, Karen did my books. But before, she was a secretary at the Sheriff’s office.”
“And I was very good at my job, wasn’t I?”
Bobby nodded reluctantly.
“So, Sam: you’re going to teach me everything I need to know to pass myself off as a secretary in the twenty-first century. Bobby, you’re going to find out who the bigwigs are that I need to scope out. Dean, you and Cas need to find me a way to wipe out a load of demons quickly. Gabriel…”
“I’m taking you shopping for a new wardrobe,” he said. “Because as much as it suits you, the seventies housewife look is kind of last century.”
Karen smiled and nodded. “That’s exactly what I need.”
“And references, and a college degree. But they’re easy enough to fake if you know how.” And with a flourish, Gabriel presented Karen with a diploma from USD.
“Congratulations, Bobby,” he said. “You married the woman who came second in her class. I don’t think even I could swing valedictorian successfully: not in the Facebook age. Get Sam to show you that too, and Twitter.”
no subject
Date: 2016-04-30 10:34 am (UTC)And now I have slipped another bloody disc. Just what my stupid headspace needed.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-03 10:00 pm (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? Pretty confident- there's a couple of exams coming up and at the rate it's going I'll have to write about 1k every day for the rest of the time, but hopefully once they're out of the way I'll have a bit more time to edit.
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? No difficulties exactly, but how do you find betas?
4. Why is a blackboard? Because a tin can.
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens? It turns out that the bullet didn't want to hit the queer character all along. It helps them elope with their lover to somewhere with better policies before the cameras return.
It was evening by the time they got around to visiting Crawford Hall. Gabriel whistled as they stood in front of the imposing stone arch of the front doors and looked up at the ornate stained glass window on the second floor.
“Wow. Nice place. No wonder it’s haunted. If I died here, I wouldn’t mind squatting for all eternity either.”
They were met in the hallway by the janitor. At first Gabriel thought, by the hulking silhouette, that someone had found a line-backer to show them around, but a second glance showed that the man was wearing dull work overalls. Damn, what Gabriel would give to peel those off, see if the rest of him was as buff as the muscled forearms that were showcased by his rolled-up sleeves. He’d always had a thing for big guys.
The man must have felt the eyes on him because he looked up from where he had been reading the paper waiting for them, and he shot them a dimpled grin as he straightened to his full gigantic height. Woah.
“Hi. You guys must be the electricians.”
Gabriel beamed at him, holding out his hand. “That’s us! I’m Mike, this is Brad.”
“Call me Sam,” the giant said, slightly slanted eyes twinkling out at him from under a mop of messy brown hair as he engulfed Gabriel’s hand in a warm, firm handshake. Oh yeah, he was screwed. Hopefully literally.
Sam shook Cas’ hand as well, and he was probably imagining that the handshake was slightly less enthusiastic than his own, but then again Cas was doing his stiff and awkward ‘I might be an alien in human form’ impression that he did whenever he met new people, so he couldn’t really blame Sam for being a little put off. It looked like it was up to him and his sparkling conversation skills to save the day.
“So, Sam, how long have you been working here?” Smooth, Gabe, smooth.
Sam chuckled as he led them down the corridor. “I’ve been mopping these floors for six years. If I ever escape, I might need therapy to integrate back into society.”
“Six years, kiddo? You’ve gotta be only, what, twenty five?”
Cas threw him a frown telling him not to insult the possible lead’s life decisions but Sam just laughed. “I’m actually older than I look. Here you go, guys.” He let them into a spacious office and Gabriel reluctantly pulled the EMF meter from his pocket. They did still have work to do after all.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-04 06:33 am (UTC)2. Confidence is dwindling. Started new job at new university this Friday, so time is probably going to be spent writing about fandom (Two accepted chapters for anthologies, two papers at conferences before June), and unfortunately not IN fandom.
3. None, really. The boys are doing their stuff, I'm just writing it down - when I get the time to do it. Oh, yes. It's going to be very long, hence the comment on 2).
4. Jimmy Carter? Pi? East of Boston?
5. Every time a queer female character dies, an angel falls. How do you think they managed that angel-falling scene? Lotsa bullets fired with no cameras to see!
----SNIP!----
"It's not going to happen to our omega," Lucifer said. "It's not."
"You don't know that. We don't know him. What if the Were Council has chosen badly? There are council members who'd take pleasure in seeing us bonded to a useless omega. I can mention one or two who'd choose and not have our clan's best interest in mind. They might even have chosen one who is already against us."
Gabriel's eyes strayed to Michael. They both knew who had been in charge of the search for the omega they were about to mate.
second check in
Date: 2016-04-04 06:34 am (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? It's already finished
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? No difficulties
4. Why is a blackboard? Because life is a game
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens? She dies of course. Everyone knows the lesbian always dies in tv because people are jerks.
Here's my snippet from chapter 2
Gabriel realized just how difficult it was to land correctly when wielding that much power. A simple travel through time was cake, but deleting everything that came after that point along the way was a lot more difficult. In the end, he was almost too late. He arrived in Sam’s nursery just in time to the cut open on Mary’s abdomen as she was halfway up the wall. He wasted no time in revealing himself behind Azazel and placed a hand on his head, burning him out. His meatsuit had already been dead so it didn’t matter too much.
While he released his power to kill Azazel the lights in the room burst and the shadows of his six large wings flashed on the wall behind him and Mary’s eyes went wide as she fell to the floor. Once the demon had been neutralized he went to Mary’s side and placed his hands over her stomach as a blue light glowed from them and her wound healed. Once she was settled, and just watching him in wonder, he swept over to the crib and picked up the fussy baby. “It’s okay Samshine. I’ve got you. You’re safe now,” he cooed at him as he bounced the baby in his arms.
Mary finally managed to collect herself. “You’re an angel,” she whispered in awe.
“Archangel actually,” Gabriel said with a shrug.
“Wh-what’s your name?” she asked.
“If I tell you, you can never tell anyone else. Not even another angel,” Gabriel said and when she nodded he smiled at her and said, “Gabriel.”
“Gabriel,” she breathed out. “Why?” she asked curiously. She wouldn’t have thought that one mother and baby would be worth the attention of the mighty Gabriel after all. Even if she had ever considered that an angel would actually come save her she would have figured on someone lower on the totem pole.
“Because I loved him once,” Gabriel whispered wistfully gazing at the baby in his arms.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-04 06:41 am (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? Moth and a half for 15K... I should be good.
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? Well apart from scrapping my first story after 5000 words, I'm doing great.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-04 12:13 pm (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? Confident.
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? I had problems with making the plot work, but I'm hoping everything jives now.
4. Why is a blackboard? ...green?
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens? She busts out her own gun and takes out the shooter. lol jk the bullet still hits her anyway because TVland is in reality run by assholes.
Snippet from my ghost!AU, Chapter 2:
There was a dead man sitting in his kitchen.
He had been sitting there the whole night, glaring at Sam accusingly whenever he dared to duck out of his bedroom.
“You know,” the ghost said, the third time Sam slunk out of his room like a guilty cat, “this is cruel and unusual.”
Sam folded his arms over his chest. “Subjecting me to hours and hours of porn is cruel and unusual.”
The corners of the ghost’s lips curled up into a wicked smirk. “No, that was funny.”
“I'm going out. Don't go far,” Sam said, brightly.
The ghost looked mildly impressed. “That was incredibly bitchy.”
Sam left.
When he returned, the ghost was standing at the edge of the salt line, scowling down at it. He kicked it, but his foot bounced back and his expression went from 'stormy' to 'comically startled.'
“Come on,” the ghost wheedled as Sam settled onto the couch and pulled out take out containers from a greasy paper bag. “You can't leave me here forever.”
“Try me,” Sam said.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-04 12:18 pm (UTC)1. Have you started the story yet? Yep.
2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? Confident.
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? I had problems with making the plot work, but I'm hoping everything jives now.
4. Why is a blackboard? ...green?
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens? She busts out her own gun and takes out the shooter. lol jk the bullet still hits her anyway because TVland is in reality run by assholes.
Snippet from my ghost!AU, Chapter 2:
There was a dead man sitting in his kitchen.
He had been sitting there the whole night, glaring at Sam accusingly whenever he dared to duck out of his bedroom.
“You know,” the ghost said, the third time Sam slunk out of his room like a guilty cat, “this is cruel and unusual.”
Sam folded his arms over his chest. “Subjecting me to hours and hours of porn is cruel and unusual.”
The corners of the ghost’s lips curled up into a wicked smirk. “No, that was funny.”
“I'm going out. Don't go far,” Sam said, brightly.
The ghost looked mildly impressed. “That was incredibly bitchy.”
Sam left.
When he returned, the ghost was standing at the edge of the salt line, scowling down at it. He kicked it, but his foot bounced back and his expression went from 'stormy' to 'comically startled.'
“Come on,” the ghost wheedled as Sam settled onto the couch and pulled out take out containers from a greasy paper bag. “You can't leave me here forever.”
“Try me,” Sam said.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-05 04:30 am (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? I'm starting to get a little worried about making it...
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? I've been having a bad bad case of writer's block, and I've had a lot more real world obligations pop up on me that I had expected as well as having my mental health take a huge nosedive..
4. Why is a blackboard? Why not?
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens? She probably still dies, because that's what always happens
no subject
Date: 2016-04-05 08:15 pm (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? Sure. Totally confident. >.>
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? I'm good with the story itself, the only issues are time and motivation but honestly I do think it'll be fine.
4. Why is a blackboard? Because it's too dark to see anything interesting.
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens? Whoever fired the bullet gets yelled at later by a straight male TV executive. Those bullets are expensive and are supposed to be saved for killing queer women onscreen, dammit!
Snippet:
"You're in love with him."
Balthazar said it as soon as Gabriel was done with his story, as though it was the simplest and most obvious thing in the world.
"He's the fucking President of the United States, of course I'm not in love with him. I'm not allowed to be in love with him."
"Yeah, but since when have you only done things you're allowed to do?"
"Look, even if he wasn't the President, he's a million miles out of my league, he's in a different place in his life, and even if I was in love with him, which I am not, it would never, ever happen, for twenty-seven and a half different reasons."
"Counted, have you?"
Gabriel put his head into his hands and moaned.
"Look, I'm always right about this. Remember Kali? I said you'd be broken up by the end of the summer and I was right. Ash? I said he secretly had feelings for you and I was right. I said Alastair was a mistake and I was right. I'm always right about this shit, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but you're in love with the President."
"What the hell am I gonna do about it?"
"Nothing you can do. You're screwed."
no subject
Date: 2016-04-08 10:32 pm (UTC)2. How confident are you of making the May 15 deadline? Not much. Unless I get motivation when classes end, I might not be able to finish it.
3. What sort of difficulties (if any) are you encountering in writing the story? Motivation mainly. Writing has been difficult for school and fan fiction lately.
4. Why is a blackboard?
5. If a bullet is fired nowhere near a queer female character and there are no cameras to see it, what happens?