The DVD commentary meme reloaded.

So. English coursework. Why are we all wailing about English coursework? It's become a meme. I get to be the cool and interesting one (no, really) whose coursework is different from everyone else's. In case I never rambled about this before, my English A-level is not English Language (like hathy_col's) nor English Literature (like Becca's) nor two A-levels (like purplerainbow's). Instead, I get the wonder that is English combined. It means I get cooler coursework, natch. Starting with a base text (mine is Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti) you do a text transformation, switching genres in the process. I turned it into a short story, which was the fun part. Write your own take on someone else's source material? Sound familiar? It's fanfiction, simply put, and I loved writing it.

But now we have the commentary. Sigh. I have spent the last two days painfully eking out the required 2000 words on linguistic and thematic choices. The thing that bugs me - actually, no. The thing I love about combined, the reason I plug it to everyone who asks me for advice on the subject, is the combination of linguistic approaches with all the stuff the lit people do. It's far more like real life - I mean, you don't think about the words people use more than what they're saying, or vice versa. But I didn't learn everything I know about writing from sitting in classrooms for the last five years. I've learned by doing, by writing fanfiction, by reading it, by using betas, by being one, by immersing myself among other people who write. And I can't tell the examiners why such and such a device works; only that it does. Anything more complex than alliteration throws me.

But, this is supposed to be a celebratory post. I have written the thrice-damned thing and can hand it in and although there will be a second draft to face, I'll jump off that bridge when I come to it. I'm now going to start talking about the sort of commentaries I actually like. tafkarfanfic wants me to do a DVD commentary on Love Story. And I'd been thinking of re-starting the meme in any case.

( the original meme blurb )

So, it's open again. All my stories are on Sleeping With Ghosts, with the honourable exceptions of the pegasus_b stories (so not to confuse my remix author), Walking Barefoot To Palestine, Love Story (which I'm doing a commentary on anyway) and Killing The Cat. Anyone wants one in particular, comment.

And if you all don't steal this meme I will be very sad.