If not writing fic, and not writing recs... and a tree falls in the forest...

[minxy]

So I seem to be in a flurry of activity, despite being unable to sit down and work on a story, and yet needing a break and wanting to do something.... The following options have presented themselves, feel free to weigh in.

What would you like to see from Minx?
1. Meta on writing character POV (particular character request in comments)
2. Watch more Farscape and post stream of consciousness deep thoughts.
3. Meta on reading fic and the joys of the header (AKA red flags and deal breakers, or how to sell me your fic.)
4. A post in which all Minxes Fic are linked and located which will stand in for her woeful lack of a website. And forward date it, please.
5. Whinge about RL, for we find it fascinating, yes we do.
6. DVD commentary for a fic, requested in comments

Well, those of you who were hoping in the deep recesses of your grubby little hearts that I would natter on about character POV are in luck! Because the very lovely rydra_wong requests... Sam meta.*

Writing SAM:

About the author: I have written Sam POV three (3) times, and have given her some important things to do and say in others. The Sam POVs are One Half of the Equation, in The Principle of Exclusion and in Monday's Self Assembly Required. These are, respectively, pre-Sam/Daniel, Sam/nearly everyone in Atlantis and Sam/her vibrator. I've written her in gen friendships too, but for whatever reason those have been from other character's POVs. Beyond this, I am, in fact, female, a physicist, an athlete, and a single chick (no black widow curse, sorry). Plus I look pretty cute in hats. I'll never be in the military though because my eyesight is rubbish.

Now, first and foremost, Sam will require forgiveness to write. I don't think TPTB have a clue what they're doing with her and have been wildly inconsistant over the years so as a writer you really have to pick and choose what character traits make the most sense. There is beauty in the madness, though, and fanfiction is made for finding wonderful moments amid inconsistant canon. This is my caveat; I am not dissing anyone else’s read on Sam.

I think the central thing to understand when writing Sam is that she is a scientist and she is going to notice things. There is a tendency to assume that because she's not good with emotions that she's completely oblivious to hers and other peoples, but I think that's not true. I think she just doesn't know how to draw a conclusion about them, so she goes with what she knows.

I shall illustrate with a paragraph I wrote and break it down:
She felt it when she walked in the room, and she knew he did as well, when he responded to her in a way elicited by no other stimulus. Catatonia gone, spell broken, but the naquadah in her blood reacted to him differently than it did to a jaffa, or to a healthy symbiote, or any other former host with the markers. So Sam (it is Sam) is registering a number of bits of information; she is trying to name reactions and human emotions, but she keeps coming back to the things she knows to be true and can quantify.

She wondered if it would change, wondered how it felt to him and if she had done him irreparable harm. Wondered if the doctors would find the unstable metal continuing to course through his veins to be a threat to others, but doubted it; her pre-mission simulations suggested the radius of the effect was such that the only one likely to be harmed was him. Seeking explanations and conclusions, and asking logical questions on both the emotional and scientific trains of thought. The questions about emotional impact and the future of it, though, are unmeasurable so she follows the thoughts that go somewhere, about the half-life of the unstable metal, about it's radius of influence; these are questions she knows how to answer, and conclusions she can stand behind.

Now, that's all personality. So it bears discussing for a moment what kind of personality is attracted to science and what is just stereotype (for the purposes of this discussion we shall limit the implications of this to the basic sciences, because those are the ones I have experience in: Biology, Chemistry, Physics.)

Logical people are attracted to science.

Often (not always) scientists are the type of people who like to finish things, find conclusions, fix stuff and complete projects. Scientists can have lives and interests, scientists can be surfers (me) or girly or into fashion or metrosexual or social or smiley (me); adrenaline junkies and homebodies (me and me). Scientists can be altruistic and into the work for it's own sake or they might be in it for the recognition and the fame and the awe of their peers. They can be ambitious, they can be lazy, they can be workaholics, they can be family people. (It tends to be a job you are in because you love it, or did at somepoint, though. Scientist aren't generally just punching a clock and putting in the time, because that's a hella lot of time to spend in school just to fill your days. Doesn't rule out burn out, though.) (I think that may be true of the overeducated in general, come to think of it. Could be wrong.)

We’re supposed to be able to go back and revise hypothesis as soon as new data becomes available, but in practice, the process of training to do science means you learn to defend your ideas, and sometimes you defend one of many possibilities with somewhat more gusto than the data can support. Witness Rodney: that guy is competitive and ambitious, so some of his ideas he gets really attached to partly because Sam challenges them and questions his competence, indirectly (for the record, I think Sam is altruistic and ambitious). They’re antagonistic, those two. How I love them. While it’s not the healthiest of relationships, I think they appreciate the other person in a huge way, because it’s lonely having no one around who gets the science technobabble explanation, and there are a lot of moments where Sam looks like she could really use someone to bounce these ideas off of, and maybe everyone’s carte blanche faith in her is getting a little overwhelming (as well it should).

It’s also supposed to be a meritocracy, but oh, I could tell you stories… but I digress.

Usually scientists are driven to discover new things, so we can extend that adventurousness and curiousity into social situations, sports, traveling, people, or restrict it to work, books, our neighbors, whatever. But first and foremost, scientists are analytical, logical people. They like explanations and they (we) like reasons. I’ve been known to fail subjects (well, it was Home Ec and it was middle school, but hey) because I thought the teacher's sell on why we should go back and reiron our pillows shaped like pencils was dumb. In a similar example, I'm not really into jewelry because I cannot figure out it's purpose and it gets caught on my gloves when I'm doing benchwork, therefore, I refuse to be bullied into wearing it despite my family finding my reticence truly bizarre. I figure, though, should I ever get married, that there is a purpose to a wedding ring, so as long as it doesn't have annoying stones sticking up all over the place to tear my gloves, I'm all for wearing a wedding ring. A goes to B goes to C. If not A, then all bets are off. See? Logical.

Now, the question may be asked, how can Sam pine after her boss for yeeeaaarrrrzzzz, omg, if she is a logical, analytical person of the type you describe who likes to finish things?

Darned good question. I have a pet theory (because I like explanations, get it?) And that theory is titled 'Martouf', or, more expansively, 'It might be possible to draw a correlation between when Martouf died and when Sam went batfuck wierd about Jack.' Now, I was on board with intrateam flirting. Particularly in early seasons, I didn't mind Jack peeking under the covers in Out of Mind. I didn't mind the AU Sam and Jack being married since there weren't any regs, I thought the implications were interesting and damn but AT played confused mourning well (and RDA just looked confused). No big deal. They’d turn around and Jack would have a moment with Teal’c and Sam would hug Teal’c and Jack and Daniel would be doing their flirty (omgtheirloveissomarried!) banter and Sam and Daniel would totally geek out about something, so it was all fairly balanced.

Then when Divide and Conquer happened? What was an odd, unspoken, potential attraction between two pretty people (it’s crazy if they don’t notice each other) got spoken and the ante was upped. Whatever, sez I, Sam has had a glimpse of a real committed love with Jolinar's memories of Lantesh and she is hesitantly seeking something like that and she picked a fairly charming guy to turn her head. There are worse things to say when your life as a conscious human contributing to society is on the line. Then what happens not 5 minutes later? Sam kills the man Jolinar loved. So upped ante and the death of a man that she felt strongly, if confusedly, for at her own hands all within the same act.

I figure that after that? Sam was never easy with the Tok'ra, not the same way, not with anyone but Jacob, and not with her own memories of Jolinar. She only picks up Goa'uld tech in life or death (usually Daniel's) situations, and doesn't seem to be actively involved in researching it anymore. In Allegiance when those who bridge the gap between Jaffa and Tok'ra had their hands full trying to prevent knife fights Sam was hiding in the guts of a UV/Vis spectrophotometer (let's not go into the handwaving on that science. It sorta ruins it for me).

After Martouf, it's all messed up. Before he died? Forays into emotional territory. It's light, it's fun, it's smiley, it's low pressure. After he died? Other people get to make the decisions. Stalking seems like a good idea. Pining is suddenly totally reasonable and for God's sake don't talk about 'us' again unless someone's about to die. High pressure and insecurity.

That's my theory, anyway. Might need more data.

Now, a word about the Pete Affair: I think she was trying to draw conclusions about emotional stuff and pawned off the actual decision onto anyone else willing to help. So, Jacob told her (in her head, but it seems it might have been based in reality) to do something, Mark told her he could set her up with a guy, I expect Janet was really funny and enthusiastic about it, Jack gave implicit (by doing nothing) and explicit (elevator scene) permission to go be happy (and he’s got to realize by now that she’s objectified him, but that her issues go way beyond that, right?). Only it had very little to do with what would make Sam happy, it was just a guy attracted to her, and when they were both trying, they could make it work, even though they didn’t like the same kinds of movies and couldn’t for the life of them figure out there was a zoo in Colorado Springs. When they weren't at their best, there was some wierd passive aggressive stalking and neglect and clinging and delaying. I think those are red flags, myself.

I do think Sam wanted to try the white picket fence life, and then she found out that it wasn't for her. I'm hoping that maybe she can process and learn from it and maybe next time pick somebody who personality-wise falls between a floppy puppy-dog guy and a black ops, possibly crazy person(s). Sam coming to the realization that doing what everyone else has always done, and passively waiting for relationships to come to her is not going to be satisfying to her is good; maybe she can even figure out that she wants or needs someone less traditional in her life, even if it won't be a person she can talk to her sister in law about, but ultimately will be a better partner. Maybe that person isn’t a sexual partner, maybe it’s a friend, or Cassie, or a friend with benefits, or it is a sexual partner and it’s a woman, or an alien, or someone she never expected. This is a central theme of a lot of the Sam fic I've written so far, whether it’s adult or not (Perchance to Dream was actually friendship and Teal'c POV, actually, but Sam’s role centered on these themes.) It's certainly something I think about a lot with Sam, that her expectations fall so far short of her needs, and her conclusions are sometimes so wrong, even if they're logical. I do want her to try, though, even if her experiments don’t work out well, it’s still data.

I shall now sum up: when writing Sam, three things happen.

First is that she will notice a great deal. She will register it, she is not oblivious, she will not skip important information, she's not likely to forget herself. If she does, that had better be a deliberate plot point (and actually, I'm curious now).

Second is that Sam does not always know what to do with particular kinds of data. She sees someone coming at her hurting, she might look to Daniel first, then maybe Jack next for orders because she herself hasn't got a clue what to do (doesn’t mean she won’t try if no one else steps up, though). This is part of the reason why Teal'c showing up and handing her Janet's eulogy is so amazingly touching.

Third: Sam will seek conclusions. At her messed up worst, if she can’t find a solution, she might repress that failure, but more often than not, I think she sets it aside to be contemplated when she has the time (only she never has the time). Most of the time, though, she wants to fix it, wants to know the answer and the logic of it is sort of it's own reward. An inability to solve a problem feels like failure, which is probably why she has come this far without gaining appreciable emotional intelligence, because she's failed spectacularly in the past (see ‘Martouf’ above) and it’s confusing and it hurt and she doesn't know how to deal and doesn't want to dwell. Jack doesn't help the situation, either. That man can repress like gangbusters.

In a much more detailed sense, I don't think Sam would speak in partial sentences like Daniel might, or multitask and have five thoughts going on at once. I think she focuses and expresses herself conclusively. I don't think she'd see the appeal of slang when you need to express an idea, and I think Teal'c's formality would feel inefficient.

I mean that she has complicated ideas that she needs to express clearly but the point is the subject, not the delivery. From the beginning she has been able to explain ideas at both the scientific level and in layman’s terms, so she’s a pretty articulate girl. She's probably not a perfectionist about grammar or punctuation, but complicated ideas require complex sentence structure. So in terms of voice: full sentences, easy vernacular, minimal slang unless she's teasing; she'll only do that if she's comfortable with you, but the girl has dry humor, too, it's just not Jack's humor (why are they supposed to be attracted to each other again? Oh, right, pretty.)

Hexamples from stories: “No, no. They were dolls. Both of them. But it wasn’t about me, and they knew and I knew and we were still all there together.” In which Sam lists what she knows to be true but has no idea what conclusions to draw. (It's from The Principle of Exclusion)

From Self Assembly Required: She wanted to try normal, she wanted a path already traveled, and experiment where the controls were done and the protocols established; a counterpoint to the excitement and constant change of her day job. Demonstrates a need for conclusions, or at least experiments, and a willingness to let anyone else make decisions about subjects that baffle her. Also that she's into discovery and adventure, and will sometimes break baffling things down into sciencey terms she does understand.

Fandom stuffs and opinions thereon:

Can Sam lie? I think she's probably very bad at it, much as she's fully capable of holding her tongue (military family, she would know how to be quiet). Still, someone asks you a question, you want to give the right answer, right? All the training in the world is going to have a hard time overcoming that instinct. Which brings us to...

Can Sam handle people lying to her? It's probably really confusing. And without a very, very good (read, orders from someone else to take the blame) reason, if she trusts you, it would probably read as betrayal of the 'wait, what else have you told me that's false? Can I trust you again? Why did you do that?' sort. You gave her the wrong information, man, that's just rude. Could lead to dismissal out of hand unless she really has to continue working with someone like that. Witness: she can deal with Maybourne, who is honest about his sneaky ways and means, but not Simmons, who lies and smiles and is slippery and devious and won't admit to any of it. She seems to have no idea what to do with Vala.

Would Sam be happy in a house forevar with Joe or Pete or Jack or anyone? Sure. I myself am really a homebody by nature, despite the occasional bungee jumping adventure, so I can totally see that. Home is good, provided the guy overcomes the black widow curse, which Sam is not very likely to believe in, and there's a compatibility there. You're opinions on her compatibility with people may vary. I've seen her (and actually have written her) in some interesting femmeslash situations that overcome a lot of her nurturing issues, though, so that's always an option- give her someone who actually is emotionally intelligent.

Does Sam have to speak technobabble or exposition to sound like Sam? I don't think so. I wouldn't mind if she spouted less exposition on occasion, actually. I do think she has to be logical, though; even with the emotional stuff, if she's going to try to do something about it, she'll be logical (possibly wrong, but logical).

Does Sam have a power kink? I doubt it. She grew up through her teenage 'boys!' years with only a military Dad, no Mom, so I think in her head she expects the men in her private life to communicate in orders. I can't imagine that would be fun for a logical person 24/7. I suspect it's another expectation of hers that she's never really thought about, but that ultimately is not really a quality that compliments her well.

Which came first, the soldier or the scientist? Oh, the scientist. It sets you apart a bit, if your brain works funny like that. I think Sam has always been aware of the opportunities the military offered and so opted to take advantage of their help in becoming a scientist and found she was also good at the rest. I think she's well accustomed to taking orders, likes when someone else handles the stuff that's peripheral to her focus and is fine with the responsibility lying elsewhere. Of course, now she's be put in command she's probably very concerned with being competent and doing the job well and making people proud, but I think she's in it for the discovery and the adventure and the projects, not the power trip or because she like watching stuff blow up. The military were a means to an end and she respects them and is grateful for the opportunities and the education.

Tea or Coffee? You know, I think we've only seen her drink tea canonically, but she's never said she doesn't like coffee, so there you go.

Can Sam cook? Actually, I have opinions on this (you're shocked). My opinion is that science and cooking are really, really similar adventures, so she has the ability. Hand her a recipe and she'll be fine. Now, whether she has the time or the inclination or a taste for spices is another thing, but I won't buy that she can't follow the box instructions to make pancakes; I will buy that she doesn't have time to make a cake for Cassie's birthday and instead buys one.

Is she a prude? Your opinions may vary, but the woman is in her 30s and 40s in this show, has been engaged and involved in several sexual relationships... I don't think she's a prude at all. I think it's distinctly possible to write a Sam who differentiates between sex and love, and can therefore understand sex a heckalot better than she understands emotional stuff, and has a much better handle on what she needs and wants. I also think it's possible to write her as someone who is fairly resigned to the practicalities of being single and alone and really busy, or as a person who's always been pretty traditional and vanilla in bed because she never spent much time thinking about it (or maybe she never had very exciting lovers so she didn't really consider other options). Open to interpretation. I am of the opinion, though, that a good affair with one's vibrator makes you active in the experience, which means you think about what works and what doesn't and what you want. Sooo.... Yeah.

Wow, I'm verbose today.

More questions? Clarification? Just ask. That's all I got for now, although I shall point out the list of Sam recs here, solicit links for fic I've erroneously overlooked, your thoughts on Sam, writing her, and links to other meta posts. Discuss amongst yourselves and we (the royal we) will be checking in and attempting to continue interesting conversations, so feel free to return and return.

ETA: discussion with green_grrl in the comments leads to the observation that for Sam, being comfortable with someone does not necessarily mean friendly; it means that she knows what to expect from them, understands and can predict that behavior. This came from discussing her use of slang and how quickly she fell into teasing Rodney in 48 Hours or the one where they shot the 'gate into an unstable wormhole ("You're creeping me out, McKay,") despite the clear animosity there. Rodney, though, very much presents a 'what you see is what you get' face and, both of them having gone through the academic training of defending one's ideas, that would be a predictable, understandable animosity for Sam. Yup, she'd be comfortable with Rodney very quickly. Barrett, on the other hand, whom I like a lot, is sometimes a little too nice to Sam, leading to stuttering and 'not-exactly' imprecision and second guessing what she's saying. Her best moments with Barrett were when they had the push and pull of working together with different priorities and a gentle ribbing and teasing (You? Boyfriend? Huh.) Sam gets that she has to tell him not to throw himself on the ground to protect her. That was a pretty 'guh' moment, I thought, with snickering. Also they were lying to each other, which was an interesting obstacle.


*surrealphantast has been quoted as saying "Ha! I fear for fandom when I think of what you and RW could get up to together." So, for the record, we get up to fanfiction, and lots of recent postings of stories can be directly traced to AIM conversations. Beyond that, we are entirely serious, serious people and in no way plotting to take over fandom or anything else.

Also? RW does not have a fanfiction problem and can quit at any time and I professed an affection for the words 'inept' and 'Zimbabwe'. RW proclaimed that Skiffy is just really so classy entirely based on this official promo still of Shanks attempting to act in some upcoming episode (I didn't find it particularly spoilery) while at least three people hide behind his codpiece, a boom and an electrician try to get in there too, and the photographer's thumb is totally in the shot. We discussed how Claudia Black quite possibly walks on water, and I am very excited for the Female Friendship Ficathon, despite the fact that I am not writing for it, and am trying to resist signing up for the Sam Ficathon due to RL stuff, though I'm tempted, omg...

All of this is the logical preamble to the phrase "Ooh, you should write Sam meta.", if you were wondering. No fandoms were harmed in the making of this meta.

Comments

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

At the moment my brain has melted... if I can get it to stop running out of my ears, I'll try and articulate them :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Would you like a milkshake or a smoothie or a cold brain compress?

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

Vodka :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Oooooh, good idea! Cheers!