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red_b_rackham(This is basically an unnecessary novel about the fic-novel I've been working forever and ever, so proceed at your own risk. XD)
The really short version: it's been years in the making (like...years years) but I finally have finished writing my epic timebomb Avengers story, and it's finally getting posted. I've just got edits coming for the last half, and I'm done. My official WIP Big Bang posting date is Sept 17 (ie. the day the whole thing has to be up in it's glory). I am alkjshfl;kjasd.
The really, really, unnecessarily long version for anybody who has time on their hands and cares to read... XD
HI WELCOME, THIS IS SERIOUSLY LONG - so long that LJ made me break it up, loooooool - so GOOD LUCK.
(Also I am obsessed with time travel, so, naturally my top two obsessions had to meet.)
I fell in love with the idea, and ended up writing a lengthy “pre mission” chapter - where they’re hanging out in the Tower arguing about cupcakes, then Fury calls them in, then they investigate and find the villain and his bomb (I think I still have it if anybody wants to read it - I think I also have a random chapter all about Lazarus, because I'd worked on this whole huge backstory and stuff and he was going to be A Big Deal...and then I ultimately trashed it, since it worked better to just have him be the vehicle and leave his own mystery to the side).
I wrote a few intro chapters to what each Avenger would be dealing with - the worlds and times they were thrown into.
Tony would have to be in medieval times, I thought, because that would be so hard for him to be without tech! Later I was told apparently there’s a whole thing in the comics where Tony ends up pretty much as a blacksmith for some dwarves for a time, which took the wind out of my sails a little bit. I thought that I was doing something Different to Tony, but you know. Comics. XD So I eventually set my worry on that aside.
Nat was definitely going to be in a dystopian apocalypse, because I had the image of her fighting her way through this ragged, bullet-riddled landscape that just had to happen. My main thought with her - which eventually became a big part of her story - is that Natasha is always SO skilled and adaptable and knowledgeable, but what if she's somewhere in which her usual knowledge is not helpful? In which nothing is familiar? What then? So: dystopian future post-apocalypse.
I couldn’t fully decide between Clint and Steve who would do what, but I knew somebody was going to go back to the 40s and be with Peggy. I had literally no real reason for this except I adore Peggy and was determined that if I was writing something with time travel, then Peggy had to be included. I would find a way to make it work. (One of my betas at one point noted that it was technically odd to have Peggy POV in the second story when I didn't branch out to any other character except the core six in the other stories and while I'm sure I made up some reason for it at the time, the real reason was... I just wanted to write Peggy. Let's be honest. XD)
(If the options are write Peggy or don't write Peggy, the obvious correct answer is write Peggy.)
Ultimately, for the Angst Factor, I opted to make it Clint that travelled to meet Peggy, as then Steve wouldn’t get a second chance with her. But Clint would be able to share memories and his friendship with Steve to Peggy, and later when the timeline was restored, he could bond with Steve about Peggy.
Bruce would have to fix everything, I knew right away – if Tony couldn’t, Bruce had to. And I immediately pictured a war-torn Fury demanding Bruce’s true identity because the Avengers were lost decades ago. So that's immediately what Bruce's story started with.
At that time, I also had very specific grand plans about a whole future!Jane + Bruce romance, which I honestly held onto for years as I wrote the other parts first, and I had this whole angsty thing worked out, and then... I can say that I know this happens to other authors but this never happens to me, but the characters kind of took over. Without being spoilery (since at the time of this post, Part 3 is only a couple chapters in), I had a side character who was just going to be a helping hand to Bruce and Jane, but...she had really good chemistry with Bruce??? And I lowkey tried to deny it and carry out my Bruce/Jane plans, but then it just... kind of happened, and it worked much better, and I went with it. But anyways, when I started, I had war-torn Fury, confused!Bruce and plans of eventual future!Jane romance.
When I pictured Thor waking up in Stonehenge, I pictured Rose Tyler finding him, and that cemented his story. It was quick and easy - he would meet her, get tangled up with Torchwood and aliens, probably fight an alien battle, bob's your uncle. I wrote him meeting her, and her going through time travel explanations with him. No problem.
(did i also go out of my way to extensively research doctor who timelines, rewatch episodes and clips, and pick a time to drop thor in that would align, theoretically, in doctor who? mehbeh)
Iron Man 3 passed by, and I thought Oh perfect! Tony wouldn’t have to hide his arc reactor in medieval times! since it was removed in IM3. I tried to work on all the stories again – mostly Tony’s – and made a little progress. I didn't get far, though. I stalled again pretty quick and I shelved all of it. It was just too big.From there, that’s pretty much how it went on and off for several years.
I wanted so badly for the story to come into being, to get out of me and out my head, but I could not figure out how. I brainstormed endlessly on my own or with writer friends (pretty sure my cousin especially can vouch for the amount of times I whined over text/skype/discord/messanger/whatever about needing to write the thing and being wholly unable to find a way to write the thing.)
I mourned that with each passing Marvel movie, my entire basis – the domestic Avengers of 2012, together in the Tower, being best friends and family and having pranks wars and all the goodness we decided on in fandom – was getting farther and farther away. I always appreciated fandom’s unwillingness to let that idea go, because, same.
#giveme2012avengersorgivemedeath
My original plan had been that the story happens between movies, but returns things to canon status - nice and neat and plausible!! By 2015, though, among many of the aggravating things that Age of Ultron did, was make that idea 100% impossible. For example, I was fully invested in a recurring Clint/Natasha romance through this time travel story based on their glorious chemistry in Avengers 2012. Yet AOU inexplicably presented us with Clint suddenly having a secret family and Laura Barton.
(Who, for the record, I don’t actually mind, but I’m still mad that it happened at all, so hence the tag on every story that says “my apologies to Laura Barton” for strictly erasing her existence, lol).
(con't here)
The really short version: it's been years in the making (like...years years) but I finally have finished writing my epic timebomb Avengers story, and it's finally getting posted. I've just got edits coming for the last half, and I'm done. My official WIP Big Bang posting date is Sept 17 (ie. the day the whole thing has to be up in it's glory). I am alkjshfl;kjasd.
The really, really, unnecessarily long version for anybody who has time on their hands and cares to read... XD
HI WELCOME, THIS IS SERIOUSLY LONG - so long that LJ made me break it up, loooooool - so GOOD LUCK.
In 2012, after watching the movie in the theatres 9 times and as I became absolutely obsessed (and descended into fandom like I never had before). I especially became obsessed, much like the rest of the fandom, with the idea of Avengers Tower and this group of heroes living together. This became the idea that a mission goes wrong and the Avengers end up thrown to different parts in time.
(Also I am obsessed with time travel, so, naturally my top two obsessions had to meet.)
I fell in love with the idea, and ended up writing a lengthy “pre mission” chapter - where they’re hanging out in the Tower arguing about cupcakes, then Fury calls them in, then they investigate and find the villain and his bomb (I think I still have it if anybody wants to read it - I think I also have a random chapter all about Lazarus, because I'd worked on this whole huge backstory and stuff and he was going to be A Big Deal...and then I ultimately trashed it, since it worked better to just have him be the vehicle and leave his own mystery to the side).
I wrote a few intro chapters to what each Avenger would be dealing with - the worlds and times they were thrown into.
Tony would have to be in medieval times, I thought, because that would be so hard for him to be without tech! Later I was told apparently there’s a whole thing in the comics where Tony ends up pretty much as a blacksmith for some dwarves for a time, which took the wind out of my sails a little bit. I thought that I was doing something Different to Tony, but you know. Comics. XD So I eventually set my worry on that aside.
Nat was definitely going to be in a dystopian apocalypse, because I had the image of her fighting her way through this ragged, bullet-riddled landscape that just had to happen. My main thought with her - which eventually became a big part of her story - is that Natasha is always SO skilled and adaptable and knowledgeable, but what if she's somewhere in which her usual knowledge is not helpful? In which nothing is familiar? What then? So: dystopian future post-apocalypse.
I couldn’t fully decide between Clint and Steve who would do what, but I knew somebody was going to go back to the 40s and be with Peggy. I had literally no real reason for this except I adore Peggy and was determined that if I was writing something with time travel, then Peggy had to be included. I would find a way to make it work. (One of my betas at one point noted that it was technically odd to have Peggy POV in the second story when I didn't branch out to any other character except the core six in the other stories and while I'm sure I made up some reason for it at the time, the real reason was... I just wanted to write Peggy. Let's be honest. XD)
(If the options are write Peggy or don't write Peggy, the obvious correct answer is write Peggy.)
Ultimately, for the Angst Factor, I opted to make it Clint that travelled to meet Peggy, as then Steve wouldn’t get a second chance with her. But Clint would be able to share memories and his friendship with Steve to Peggy, and later when the timeline was restored, he could bond with Steve about Peggy.
Bruce would have to fix everything, I knew right away – if Tony couldn’t, Bruce had to. And I immediately pictured a war-torn Fury demanding Bruce’s true identity because the Avengers were lost decades ago. So that's immediately what Bruce's story started with.
At that time, I also had very specific grand plans about a whole future!Jane + Bruce romance, which I honestly held onto for years as I wrote the other parts first, and I had this whole angsty thing worked out, and then... I can say that I know this happens to other authors but this never happens to me, but the characters kind of took over. Without being spoilery (since at the time of this post, Part 3 is only a couple chapters in), I had a side character who was just going to be a helping hand to Bruce and Jane, but...she had really good chemistry with Bruce??? And I lowkey tried to deny it and carry out my Bruce/Jane plans, but then it just... kind of happened, and it worked much better, and I went with it. But anyways, when I started, I had war-torn Fury, confused!Bruce and plans of eventual future!Jane romance.
When I pictured Thor waking up in Stonehenge, I pictured Rose Tyler finding him, and that cemented his story. It was quick and easy - he would meet her, get tangled up with Torchwood and aliens, probably fight an alien battle, bob's your uncle. I wrote him meeting her, and her going through time travel explanations with him. No problem.
(did i also go out of my way to extensively research doctor who timelines, rewatch episodes and clips, and pick a time to drop thor in that would align, theoretically, in doctor who? mehbeh)
And that...
That is where the entire story (all six pieces) stayed, for a long time.
Iron Man 3 passed by, and I thought Oh perfect! Tony wouldn’t have to hide his arc reactor in medieval times! since it was removed in IM3. I tried to work on all the stories again – mostly Tony’s – and made a little progress. I didn't get far, though. I stalled again pretty quick and I shelved all of it. It was just too big.From there, that’s pretty much how it went on and off for several years.
I wanted so badly for the story to come into being, to get out of me and out my head, but I could not figure out how. I brainstormed endlessly on my own or with writer friends (pretty sure my cousin especially can vouch for the amount of times I whined over text/skype/discord/messanger/whatever about needing to write the thing and being wholly unable to find a way to write the thing.)
I mourned that with each passing Marvel movie, my entire basis – the domestic Avengers of 2012, together in the Tower, being best friends and family and having pranks wars and all the goodness we decided on in fandom – was getting farther and farther away. I always appreciated fandom’s unwillingness to let that idea go, because, same.
#giveme2012avengersorgivemedeath
My original plan had been that the story happens between movies, but returns things to canon status - nice and neat and plausible!! By 2015, though, among many of the aggravating things that Age of Ultron did, was make that idea 100% impossible. For example, I was fully invested in a recurring Clint/Natasha romance through this time travel story based on their glorious chemistry in Avengers 2012. Yet AOU inexplicably presented us with Clint suddenly having a secret family and Laura Barton.
(Who, for the record, I don’t actually mind, but I’m still mad that it happened at all, so hence the tag on every story that says “my apologies to Laura Barton” for strictly erasing her existence, lol).
(con't here)
