#I've been naming each chapter the name of a classic because I am a pretentious asshole | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sunnys-sonnets · 9 months

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What really sold the idea of modern au to you since you have always been far away from that trope, would you have seen your past self ever modernizing GOW 😆

Nothing. I still don't like it.

But Listen, hear me out... It's different with my child, my baby, my fic, because my fic is the perfect smart baby that can do no wrong and yes that does mean you need to ignore that it may be as snotty-nosed as the rest.

But fleshing out a fun concept with a friend on the server did make it more interesting. I typically hate reading boring modern-day problems because why in the Pillbury Dough Boy fuck would I want to read fiction like that when I live it. But fleshing out this weird relationship and finding a way to make it Modern-day Heimtreus has been interesting to force it to work since Mordenizing Heimdall can either mean making him someone that commits hate crimes or watering him down to be a regular day asshole.

There's also that I get to put funny anecdotes into this fic. Some of them are mine or a family member's or a friend's or completely made up but they have been so much fun to write. I hope it's fun for others to read it like it is for me to write it

#for the most part I think I still don't like Modern AUs but this one has been different but it could just be that I'm the one writing so #that means I am perfect & can do no wrong & ignore all the issues in it & how it's just like the rest but I like it so it's “different”#I don't know really #maybe it's how I've been able to sneak in all the classics I've read and it feels like I can show it #it could be that since I love bragging about dumb shit #I've been naming each chapter the name of a classic because I am a pretentious asshole #heimtreus #sunny's answers

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seeingteacupsindragons · 2 years

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Not sure if this your areas, but do you have any tips for incorporating literary allusions/intertexual references into your writing? (By the way, I've been going through your writing posts and they've been a big help!)

I’m going to scream; I was almost ready to post this and then Tumblr stole everything.

Okay. Let’s try this again.

This is something I wish I was better at. I’d like to be a writer people recognize as well-read from my writing. That’s probably pretentious, but I am not free of pretension, and it’s something I desire.

There’s a lot of ways to do intertextuality. In fact, you’re definitely doing it unintentionally, because every piece of media is a product of the environment it was formed in, and the environment it was formed in is heavily shaped by the media the creator was exposed to. Your pool of references, but also your understanding of narrative structure, of characters, of storytelling, of literary devices, of everything, will be shaped by the things you’ve read and watched.

But the major, obvious, intentional categories you’re probably asking about here are:

Retellings/adaptations/pastiches/etc.: Taking the original story and/or characters and reusing it to say something different. YuuMori isn’t saying the same thing about life or fiction or people or the world or religion or anything that the original Sherlock Holmes stories did, for example.

Quotation: Taking a specific line or moment and language and reusing it to say recall a moment/scene to recontextualize it. Most people in a Western or Christian culture would likely recognize, “Let there be light,” from Genesis and ideas of beginnings and newness and godliness and goodness and acts of creation.

Comparison/Reference: I kind of made up this term because I can’t think of what it’s called. This is the kind of thing where someone else refers to a character as Icarus, for example, verbally or in narrative. It’s not retelling or quoting anything, just leveraging a known story as shorthand to describe something else.

Basically, intertextually is generally used to recontextualize...something. Either the original work, or the work you're writing and leaning on something commonly known and understood to twist what's happening in a new light.

Knowing your audience is vital to doing this correctly. If it's vital to understand the reference to understand your writing, your audience needs to be someone who likely understands it. If it's not vital but adds Extra Meaning, you can get away with things less known to your audience who will delight if they do know it, or delight once they stumble upon the original, or delight if they come back to your work later after learning of the original.

And different cultures, different generations, different subcultures, different...everything, have different reference pools. I, for example, would almost certainly not recognize a reference to a telenovela. But there’s a lot of people who would. But a lot of people wouldn’t recognize me saying, “See you Space Cowboy...” They might not need to, depending on the context, but knowing what I’m referencing might add something.

Now for a practical example to discuss. This is a story I outlined in college, and it’s the most obnoxious, up-its-own-ass English Major of things. I outlined this entire thing, and then never wrote even 1k words because I’d outlined it and that meant death.

As you can see, each chapter is named after Classic Literature. The conceit was that the protagonist was a college freshman taking a broad literature introduction course and would read each of these one week (do not talk to me about what monstrous professor would assign Great Expectations to be read and discussed in one week, the first week of classes) in his semester, and the events and themes of the literature would be reflected in the plot of the chapter!

Cool!

Except there’s a lot that can go wrong here. Easily. First, how long are the goddamn chapters going to be if they’re trying to cover that much stuff? Second, many of these have wildly different themes and statements about nature. How does White People Ableism The Secret Garden match with African American community and liberation in Their Eyes Were Watching God? What do you even do with that that’s not a surface-level analysis of the work?

So, you’re going to want to be choosy about your references. Too many can start conflicting with each other and muddle what you’re trying to do. What are you trying to say? Make sure the references you’re using and the way you’re using them will facilitate that. If you want a lot, you might confine it to one character--and then it begins to say something about that character instead.

All of this is to say, I think the main points to consider are:

How are you incorporating the intertextuality?

What are you trying to say by using it?

Who is your audience and are the references you’re choosing appropriate for them?

Why have you selected this vehicle to say this thing?

(Also, thank you for sending this, it was fun to write up, and I’m glad you enjoy my posts about this)

#writing #writing advice

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