Omnivore:

Writing is happening but in a disjointed sense where I can conjure ideas and put words down, but making the words coherent or detailed or enjoyable to read is another story.

I can console myself that at least part of my creative brain is working.

However, I was hit with inspiration for (of all things) a weird and plotty Invisible Inc Xu/Sharp fic (yeah I know)* and I am wondering if anyone (besides one person) will even read it.

Cos writing is like pulling crocodile teeth and if pretty much everybody will look at the pairing, say 'wat' and just leave, maybe I should put my effort somewhere else. It's annoying. I'd much rather take a 'I'll do it because I feel like it' attitude, but I'm forced to consider filtering myself simply because of mere current physical limitations. Yeesh... I should become a robot, too.

_{* Mature-rated at most. No CLANG CLANG CLANG to speak of. Sorry (??????)}

I've been watching Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster with my mother while we eat our dinner. After watching so much of it, I've come to believe that this series demonstrated a very obvious, but essential aspect of plotting and characterisation.

(I have read a few of Wodehouse's original stories but so long ago I'm sticking with the television series like a pleb for this post)

Wooster is not an inherently interesting or sympathetic character--he's a very dim bulb, avoids responsibility, is in turns self-centered and overly idealistic, and to him, hard work (aside from climbing buildings and other such larks) is something that happens to other people while he's throwing bread rolls at other idle gentlemen at the Drones Club.

But thanks to his status and easygoing lifestyle, and the fact Jeeves is in his employ, his friends and acquaintances constantly take advantage of his time, money and apparently the fact that he exists. Last episode I watched had his fiancee break a man's leg with a car, then put him up in Wooster's flat and tell his family that Wooster was driving! His aunts, the closest thing Wooster has to parents or authority figures as far as I've seen, berate him for being useless, yet continue to give him nonsensical and dangerous errands benefiting only them.

When Wooster makes an effort to prevent more shenanigans or to defend himself, everybody talks over him or tells him to stop interrupting. The ongoing comedic intent of this (juggling the Idiot Ball, to use TV Tropes parlance) is obvious, but over a period of time it builds empathy, even sympathy towards him, and leads to a certain satisfaction when Jeeves comes through again.

Most of these figures are harmless (I can't bring myself to like Stiffy though--what a nasty pasty!) and the stories are genteel and always (as far as I've seen anyway) end in the status quo, with Wooster not learning too much from his experiences and never losing more than his pride. But who can't relate to overbearing authority figures giving orders and insults in the same breath? Or charming but irritating friends lumping their woes on them and making their lives hell, and not being able to defend themselves? And so, who wouldn't want someone like Jeeves on their side?

It's all part of the comparatively harmless comedy, and at the same time, it's great storytelling.

I'd love to read fic and meta exploring the relationship between Jeeves and Wooster, but I'll have to be careful looking for it--it's not that finding slash in this fandom would infuriate me, so much as I wouldn't be able to look my mother in the eye. 8D;;;;

Good morning! I am a bit snoozy, because one of the cats woke me up at 5:30 AM. I let him into my room because it's so dang cold, but this morning he sat at the door of my bedroom (my room's an extension off the main house) and meowed planitively. I must have pulled myself out of bed four times to open the door for him, and he ran around the veranda in a circle and came right back in.

When I gave up on sleep and went into the house proper, I sat down to play video games and he sits there STARING at me, still meowing. I was just about to get up to see if cat biscuits would do the trick, when he pissed all over my leg.

Everything I might have said about becoming a soppy pet lover I TAKE IT BACK arseholes the lot of them.

But speaking of which, if you haven't read Ito Junji's Cat Diary, fix this immediately.

( Writing about writing is a terrible way to write, but sometimes it's got to be done. )