write like you need it to survive

21 – Sequels – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?

Short answer: Yep! Because there was another story that I thought I would like to write that followed from the first one.

Longer answer:

So, here's the thing. I didn't start out overthinking this question, but I did start out thinking that this question had a very specific meaning. Intuitively, I read this question as meaning, Did you ever, after having written a fic and being all finished with it, then write another fic that was of roughly similar size and seriousness which followed sequentially and necessarily from that fic while also being a complete story in itself?

To which the answer is, yes, about three times, and one of those isn't posted yet. So as it turns out I have all these IDEAS about what the word sequel means.

To me a sequel is something different from a series-planned-as-a-series, in which case while each separate story is--hopefully--a sufficiently standalone story that people will not do themselves or me an injury while waiting for the next bit, the reason I keep writing subsequent stories is because the story isn't over yet. That's not the same as "the story was done and then I wrote another story that followed from the first one." So, in my head, the GK wolf-verse doesn't count, nor does The World That You Need, nor Brothelers, nor all those Hawks & Hands prequels, even if they do make me the internet's most prolific Kowalski/Gardino writer.

Speaking of which, The Future in Five Conversations also doesn't count. It's not a sequel to Hawks & Hands, even though it follows necessarily from H&H while also sort of standing on its own as a story because it's not the same magnitude of story. It's a coda, a (five years) belated epilogue tacked on at the end. If I had ever written the epic OT3-trapped-in-Ancient-Egypt story that With the Dying was setup for, it would have been the same thing in reverse.

So, as far as I can tell from a cursory look through my works on AO3, the only stories that do count as sequels in my head are:

Rumored, sequel to Unannounced (House/Wilson outside POV), and
Tell, sequel to Common Language (Stargate SG-1 Bechdel fix-its for the pilot).
Arguably also Spades, which doesn't have to be a sequel to Hunde (Spy Game, Muir/Bishop), but might as well be.

Plus, of course, The One I Haven't Posted Yet, which is a (GEN) sequel to Signals That Sound in the Dark.


( All 30 questions under the cut )

So, by the time I hit House fandom, halfway through season one and months after the Christmas episode aired, the Christmas-episode-tag-porn story had already been written at least twice. I was still determined to write it again, only with offputting verisimilitude and a weird relationship dynamic (although, ha ha, now quaintly far less fucked up than canon). This stopped dead in midsentence due to my inability to write porn with that setup. It's really no wonder the first story I finished in that fandom was gen, is it?

House/Wilson, almost NC-17. But not. Post-that first season Christmas episode, with the smiling and Chinese food and piano playing, remember that? Good times.

( Misrule )

Just watched the last two weeks' House episodes all in a row and ( now there are spoilers )

Thirteen minutes in, all my reactions to House have been one reaction: ( One-word spoilers for 3x01, 'Meaning' )

House is back! And I'm not saying I continue to focus intensely on Chase despite everything that happened last season, ( but... )

This is me, not thinking about tomorrow's trip to the dentist, tomorrow's slew of moving- and credit-card-debt-related phone calls, or the Supreme Court. Instead, a meme!

Selectively swiped from pearl_o among others: If you happen to be working on some creative writing project, fanfiction or NaNoWriMo or what have you, post exactly one sentence/paragraph/whatever from each of your current work(s) in progress in your journal. It should probably be your favorite or most intriguing sentence so far, but what you choose is entirely your discretion. Mention the title (and genre) if you like, but don't mention anything else -- this is merely to whet the general appetite for your forthcoming work(s).

(I did this one in November, when it was NaNo-appropriate, and posted snippets from seven WIPs. 1.083 of them got finished in the intervening eight months, and the rest... probably won't be. Also, in November, they were all from one fandom and now they're, uh. Not.)

Anyway, ( WIPs: )

My love for House is restored. If they just deal with the Chase issue properly in the last four, I will consider the Vogler arc completely and utterly worth it just for ( Babies and Bathwater spoilers )

I am just *flailing* with inarticulate love. So of course next week we get a rerun.

My god. Maybe it's because I had the self-preservative instincts not to watch the last season of the X-Files, but... rarely have I so badly hoped that I hallucinated an entire episode of a TV show. W--T--F, mates?

This lovely Duck (and Dan!) icon is by zoetrope - I've been needing a WW icon for about five months now, and I finally have one!

I also want to show off this gorgeous House icon by atlashrugged at houseicons:


House! It's a happy fun fandom! Can't you tell?

So, the scariest thing for me about House isn't the way it's eaten my brain. It's the way it's eaten my brain and only spits out genfic. Still, it's scary in the fun way.

Today's genfic:

Last Rites (65k), also available at the House Fanfiction Archive. Big thanks to iuliamentis and brooklinegirl for betaing.

Set a couple months past the events of "Cursed": House has some bad news for Chase, and a surprise for Cameron.

And I don't know if I remembered to mention this before, but it's gen. I figure I've got about two months until this is jossed (shored?) into total oblivion, so read it while it's vaguely plausible!