Writing From the Inside

The Placement of Water and Lead by katjad.

Slash.

Reads like an ep. Has many good elements of a lot of good eps, the conflict between good and evil and the choices the boys have to make to decide what to do. The save at the end is a little easy (Dean guesses), but I enjoyed the ep-feel of this one, and the action scenes, which were well done. How Dean thinks is true and clear, like:

“Sometimes when Dean thinks things through, his gut tightens into a dense leaden ball and he understands things that he didn’t know before. He tried to explain the feeling to Sam, once, right after Sam first told him about the visions, but this is nothing like the visions. Sam’s visions are about things he couldn’t possibly know, that push into his mind uninvited; the lead in Dean’s gut is made up of the things he already knows coming together until they fit, until they make obvious what he almost knew before and couldn’t put his finger on.”

and

“”Sam! You’ve gotta unlock the door, I can’t get in ’til you do,” he says, keeps repeating something on the same theme until it gets through to Sam and the bolt turns in the lock. Sam’s on the floor, fingers tangled in his hair, clutching at his skull and rocking. Dean pulls him out of the tiny, porcelain-hard bathroom, and into the room, onto the carpet, but the vision just won’t end; he’s practically howling now, and Dean stops thinking entirely and pulls Sam into his arms and close.”

and especially

“Since he was six years old Dean has catalogued every room he’s entered for exits, cover and weapons the moment he entered it, and this room is no different. He has the image of the whole place in his mind instantly. The bed’s the only cover, and Sam’s got his gun. The rest of the guns are under the front of the bed, out of reach. His knife is on his belt, which is somewhere on Sam’s side of the bed, near the bathroom. There’s only one door to the outside, which is on Dean’s side of the room, but he’d never make it the ten feet between here and the door without giving Sam a clear line of sight.”
  

Untitled by unintended muse.

Gen.

Families are a wonderful thing. This story, sweet as can be, shows us the Winchesters actually going to one of Sam’s soccer games, and THEN to Chuck E. Cheese’s afterwards. Can you imainge such a thing? I can’t. But it was especially gratifying to see them expressing love and not just arguing all the time. To watch Sam win at that dumb rifle game. I’ll bet he got tons of tickets, just tons.

Fault Lines by jewels 667 and Emptying the Bowl by angstslashhope.

Slash.

These two are a pair of stories, the second of which is a remix of the first. Near as I can figure it, a remix takes the first story and gives it a spin. The second story could be a retelling of the first from a different point of view, or it could be a continuation of the story, or whatever. Like SPN makes a writer want to write, a good story will make another writer want to keep that story going. Near as I can figure.

In this case, the first writer creates a Dean-character story, marked by fine writing like:

“Plates shift with the click of the door latch and Sam’s affect is defined by his absence, like a fissure opened up beneath Dean’s feet; he’s been tumbling downward ever since. ”
 

What works in this story is the almost abstract description, where there are fragments of ideas against other fragments, and all of it assembles itself together to paint a picture of a very lonely Dean. The remix takes this idea and spins it. They’re lovely.

“Dean likes the baser things in life. His body’s never quite fit him right, like his skin’s a tectonic jigsaw, constantly shifting and threatening to crack open. Sam’s mouth soothes and stills. Binds the edges together, like the scratch marks down Dean’s back are seams, like Sam’s saliva is blood.”
 

Unaplogetic by fig jam.

Slash.

I must be getting somewhere with all these fics, cause I came across another fic I’d read some time back and remembered liking. The plot is straightforward, Dean and Sam on the road, they stop at a truck stop that is actually a nest of succubi waiting for weary travellers. Dean is bitten, and the rest of the story follows suit. Succubi bites make you want to have sex, apparently, and Sam is struggling between trying to fight Dean off, or just giving in, becuase one of these choices is going to hurt less than the other.

This thought makes me shake my head. What kind of life do these boys lead if choices are judged based on how much they will NOT hurt you, rather than on how good they might be for you?

Some memorable lines, including:

“The people who said that you could never go home again hadn’t grown up with Sam. Sam went home with every cheap hotel room that reeked of sulfur, gun oil, scotch. Sam went home every time he picked up a gun and was struck by the memory of his father’s hands steadying his own, bracing him for the kick of the rifle that would leave bruises. Sam went home every time he turned on the television and was left with muted infomercials or the steady pattern of a network gone off the air. That had been his nightlight; the shadow of his father sitting by the door, watching, armed, had been his comfort.

Sam used to wonder why his father never slept. He knew now. ”

and

“Dad would’ve turned around. Then again, Dad would been at the bottom of a bottle by now. Dean didn’t have the luxury of alcohol-fueled reason. One of them needed to be clearheaded.” 

and

“Sam had been out of the business for four years. He wasn’t used to fighting anymore. He hadn’t slept.

Dean hadn’t. Dean was. Dean had.”

The Boy Who Fell by flipmontigirl.

Slash.

I think this is more a ficlet than anything, but it had me going, sucked me right in and made me love it. I’m going to stop for the night with this image in my head:

“Dean told him about Sammy, who wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t listen and never backed down.”

Vocabulary by innie_darling.

Gen.

Help me. Oh, I want to write as well as this and think up brilliant ideas like this. Sam has an assignment from a teacher who wants him to complete the sentence that starts “I am….” Sam spends days agonizing over this, with choices like I am sixteen, or I am ignored, or I am weary. It ends with him realizing I am protected, and he knows it. There is love in the Winchester family, though it doesn’t often surface. This one makes me sigh. I love this story.

Undertow by whereupon.

Slash.

I am a lucky girl. This is one of those stories that had this LINE in it that I couldn’t banish from my mind, but there was no way I could plow back through all the stories I had already read to find it. No, it’s not the eyelash one, but it’s the other one. The first story were I ever read a phrase that described kissing like this:

“Sam leans up; Dean’s mouth brushes against his, just for a second, tongue flicking across Sam’s lips and a surprised noise in his throat.

Dean turns his head, steps back. He opens his mouth further, like he’s going to say something, and then closes it, turns away.”

I think I have, perhaps, found the perfect slash story. Clocking in at over 30,000 words, sex is the medium, not the message.

Not By Half by Estrella30.

Slash.

Found something good here. Dean thinks about all the women he’s loved over the years, or cared for, or just had sex with. How each one means less and less to him as time goes by. Each section starts out with a phrase like:

“When Dean was sixteen he met Suzanne.”

The section goes on to talk about Suzanne, or whoever she is this time. Then the last section starts:

“When Dean was twenty-six he found Sam.” Then it continues on with how they met up again and how the sex starts. What I like about this story is how Dean realizes he was wandering without finding, and how it’s only ever been Sam for him. Unlikely yes, but nicely done.   

We Were Like Family Once by dodger-winslow.

Gen

Oh jeeze. Oh jeeze. Oh jeeze. A REAL story. With words and everything. Just kills me. A plot. Solid structure. Single POV. Structure. Good. Well written. Well plotted. John. John Winchester and Bill Harvelle. John’s side of the story as to just how Bill got killed and why. Why his boys never met Ellen till years later. Totally believable, reads like cannon. Like an Ep. A really long ep. The thing clocks in at nearly 30,000 words and while some of it slumps in the middle (some of the converations are really long) what I loved was the realism and care that the writer has with John’s character. And those of his sons, seen through John’s eyes. The conversations he has with them and why. How he sees them. It all rings so true.

In my mind this is how it happened until Kripke tells me different.

Outside by the Blue, Blue Moon by vaingirlfic.

Slash.

Lo, I have found one of the stories I was looking for. A terrific read, and an amazing job making a fairy tale come to life. Only I’m not sure which fairy tale, it just reads like its based on one. Sam is captured by this demon who insists that Sam stay with him. If Sam does not do so willingly for a month, the demon will kill Dean and Dad. Sam watches his brother and father through the window and agrees. A spell has been cast. Sam must stay for a month, he can never tell anyone, and the horrible horrible spell that has been cast over him can only be broken by someone who loves him. So.

Brilliant. My favorite part is where Dean (natch) is the one who figures it out, not just the spell but how to break it. He relaxes against Sam and says, “I can fix that.” You know. Just like the guy in the movie Holes who grows those terrific onions. “I can fix that.” Well, mabye that’s not exactly what he says, it’s somethnig more along the lines of, “Heck, that’s easy.” There’s a lot of love there between brothers, and I just want to go soak in a whole tubfull of it.