All Eyes on Me

Forever Captain:
“The Show”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: Steve’s teenaged great-granddaughter cajoles him into going with her to see Rogers: The Musical. And like any good theater experience, they’ll laugh and they’ll cry.

Previous chapters:
1. Balcony Seats
2. The Overture
3. Kids From Brooklyn
4. So Damn Lucky

Chapter summary: The performance’s showy style may serve some aspects of Steve’s early years of military service— but others, they don’t exactly do justice.

I realized recently I haven’t worked on the mainline entry in my MCU fanfiction series, Forever Captain, for like a year now, and I feel kind of guilty about that. Of course, I feel guilty when I spend too much time writing fanfiction as well, so I guess I can’t win. But I do want those stories to get finished eventually. Unfortunately, I always find plotting to be the most intensive work in writing, and in a plot-heavy story like that one, it makes it the number one barrier to making progress.

It sometimes helps when I’m stuck on a prose project to try drafting scenes as drama, to lower the barrier to getting them on the page. That’s not super helpful when I’m trying to just figure out what needs to happen structurally, but it occurred to me it might help on a lower-intensity installment in the series that hasn’t seen any updates recently either. So here’s a scene from The Show, the one where Steve’s great-granddaughter takes him to see Rogers! The Musical. The premise of that piece is that while laughing over the musical’s inaccuracies, Steve gets to reflect to his great-granddaughter about the trajectory of his life, so I can weave pathos into the humor, and I’m afraid this scene is a bit thin for that. But as I continually remind myself— draft now, flesh out later. If you can’t do something you want to with a scene, do the next-easiest thing to it, and fix it in the edit.

I shall definitely have to do that here.



( Day #9 – Singing and Dancing )

It's late in the day, but it's still the 20th, so I'm technically still caught up!

This is another little bit of a Captain America fan fiction scene that I wrote as a drama, but could definitely use as the first draft of a prose fic. That technique often helps me get started. It's just a silly little moment, coming out of my personal preference for clean shaven Cap as opposed to bearded, which influences why I write him that way in my by-now pretty extensive post-Endgame series Forever Captain. I guess it's an attempt to find an in-character justification for it. There isn't a lot to this, but it could make for a cute little one shot that I could stick in the continuity of their early married years.

I guess there's also a tiny nod to that awful look Chris sported when he was performing Lobby Hero too.



( Day #20 - Bearded )

Forever Captain:
“The Scenic Route”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: When Uatu takes Captain Carter back to her own universe by the scenic route, she gets a chance to see if there is some timeline out there where she gets her happy ending.

~~~

( “The Scenic Route” )

~~~

The End

Forever Captain:
“Roads Less Traveled”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: Agent Mobius stands at a crossroads, unsure whether to continue his work at the TVA or see what the life he left might have had in store for him. He decides to ask for advice from the only person he can think of with similar experience-- a variant in a case that came across his desk just before all this craziness got started.

~~~

( Chapter 1 - “The Test Case” )

~~~

Next chapter: 2. Expert Advice

I was going like gangbusters on my fanfics, post-retirement Captain America and otherwise, at the start of the summer. I’d done several entries of the comedic shorts Texts from Avengers Tower, as well as chapters of the plot-focused adventure novella Boulder in the Stream, and the funny-sweet novelette The Show. I got stalled on them once it got close to shooting time for Mrs. Hawking parts 4 and 5, especially since Boulder in the Stream requires structuring and that’s always a particularly labor-intensive part of writing for me. Even The Show was tricky— because there’s a whole-ass musical going on in the background of it, and I have to figure out what happens in it!

But I have found in the past that sometimes drafting scenes in prose pieces as if they were scenes of drama can sometimes make them easier at least to structure. I’m a big proponent of when writing gets tough, you make it as easy as possible by committing to an iterative process where each round is made as EASY AS POSSIBLE. Then you just go back and add in the next layer of whatever it’s missing until it’s where you want it to be. I find that way more doable than trying to accomplish everything you want in the piece all at the same time. So this method allows me to worry only about structure and dialogue; I can flesh out the bones of it later.

So for today’s piece I took a shot at the next chapter of The Show, which has languished slightly-started for several weeks now. It’s pretty bare-bones, but that’s okay; I do feel like I figured out what the chapter is supposed to DO. While the story’s primary purpose is to be funny bagging on the ridiculousness of the musical they’re watching, the sub-story is about Steve reflecting on a long and full life by comparing his memory to its depiction in the show, which he endeavors to convey to his great-granddaughter. Like, for example, he tells her here one of my favorite things about Steve and Peggy’s relationship. <3

Also, the lyrics suck here and need to be punched up. They’re basically just placeholders for now.



( Day #12 – So Damn Lucky )

Forever Captain:
“Boulder in the Stream”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: “It’s been seven years since Steve Rogers retired to the midcentury after returning the Infinity Stones. By 1954, he’s built a contented new life as Grant Carter, Peggy’s husband and stay-at-home dad to two great kids. But he’s never been able to shake his fears of what his presence here will do to change the progress of the timeline. Or— perhaps worse —that he has no power to affect the course of events at all.

A direct continuation of “His Part to Play.” A more plot-focused adventure story.”

Previous chapters:
1. Glimmer
2. Siege
3. Backup
4. Onslaught
5. Operatives
6. Mission

Chapter summary: Steve and Peggy prepare for their separate missions— the first time they’ve both had to do so in years.

Forever Captain:
“The Show”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: Steve’s teenaged great-granddaughter cajoles him into going with her to see Rogers: The Musical. And like any good theater experience, they’ll laugh and they’ll cry.

Forever Captain:
“Boulder in the Stream”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: “It’s been seven years since Steve Rogers retired to the midcentury after returning the Infinity Stones. By 1954, he’s built a contented new life as Grant Carter, Peggy’s husband and stay-at-home dad to two great kids. But he’s never been able to shake his fears of what his presence here will do to change the progress of the timeline. Or— perhaps worse —that he has no power to affect the course of events at all.

A direct continuation of “His Part to Play.” A more plot-focused adventure story.”

Previous chapters:
1. Glimmer
2. Siege
3. Backup
4. Onslaught

Chapter summary: Steve remembers how the last time he’d been in action ended, and investigates the suspicious activity on the skyscraper.

Ah, 31 Plays in 31 Days. I’m not sure if it’s the creative broccoli I make myself eat, or the vitamin I keep choking down even though my nutritional needs have changed.

Wow, how’s that for a metaphor? I’M A WRITER, YOU SEE.

Anyway, another one down. This is my twelfth year. I confess, it’s become more frequent lately that they are kind of a pain to have to stick to, but I am always happy to have done them once they’re done. I love seeing my long unbroken list of what I wrote, and I’m often very pleased to have created some of the pieces that I did.

This was another year where I was not excessively directed in what I worked on. I did a fair bit of scratching at the upcoming Hawking part 7, but that’s still very much in the planning stages, so not a whole lot was structured or definite. I mostly wandered between various major projects that interested me, from other parts of the Hawking story, to Dream Machine, to Adonis, to a bit of my Marvel fan fic. I even did a couple of scenes from an idea for a King of the Hill story set in the future of that series that happened to be rattling around in my brain.

( The stories I wrote for this year )

( The characters I wrote for this year )

As with last year, I wrote within a narrow set of projects and across a wide swath of characters. This year’s most frequent appearance was Dream Machine lead Leah Lucchesi with 6 scenes total. Following her was Meredith Barry, Clara Hawking, and Victoria Hawking with 5, Nathaniel Hawking, Derek Kaplan, and Steve Rogers with 4, and a total of five characters, Aidan, Elizabeth Carter, Jamie Carter, Ryan Dresden, and Justin Hawking, ending up with 3. Lately I also like to take note of how frequently I end up writing for certain actors. This time, Naomi Ibasitas has 8 between Leah and Rosaline Pembroke, Cari Keebaugh has 7 from Mrs. Hawking and Josie Carraway, Eric Cheung and Matt Kamm have 6, and Liz Salazar and Jackie Freyman have 5.

My actual drafting, as in, the choosing of the words to manifest the ideas, I feel was generally rather weak this year. Sometimes I feel that way in the writing and change my mind about it later, but as I looked back over all the scenes in retrospect I maintain that assessment. A little bit disappointing, but that’s what drafting’s for— just getting it out on the page, to be improved and punched up later. So I’m trying not to feel too badly about it.

I do think I ended up with a bunch of strong concepts for scenes and interactions. I had several pieces that were interesting from a character standpoint even if I didn’t manage much of a narrative arc. The irreverent screwing around in #23 - “Never Have I Ever” was charming and funny, even if the scene doesn’t really go anywhere. I liked the notions in #20 – “Cinched” even if I’m concerned I manifested them a bit clumsily on the page— I can’t decide if that bit with the watch works or not. #24 – “Shelley Duval” has some punch to it. I love the main concept of Meredith developing an imperious alternate persona as a way of seizing authority in #9 – “Marcelina Anastasia di Gregorio Tremaine”. #14 – “Another Young Girl” has a great thematic interaction between Mrs. H and her grandniece Beatrice. And just like last year, doing the Ember Island Players thing with #31 – “Counterparts” allowed for some enjoyable meta humor poking fun at the Hawking cast members.

Were there any scenes that came out strong overall? A couple. I think the one that came out the most spot-on in terms of arc and character was #21 – “Asshole”. It’s probably the single best crafted scene of the month, with two characters with long history and strong emotions about each other get honest and real. A close second would be #3 – “Rake and Coquette” which depicts Justin and Clara’s breakup. That I was pleased with because I was able to find ways to reveal failings in both parties in a way that was natural to the situation.

Favorite lines? #14 – “Another Young Girl” has, in response to Beatrice asking her great auntie why she doesn’t like her, “Oh, dear God. You are Nathaniel’s daughter.” #16 has the title line, “Your mother is in your bones!” I love basically everything Meredith says in character as Marcelina Tremaine. And #18 – “Blond Salvation” has several that I’m actually really proud of. “Hiding behind that gods-given face.” “How could you come to me? When everything I am was built on your back?” And of course, the title line, “I have seen salvation, and he is blond.”

So, yeah. Maybe not all my best work. But good, solid, useful stuff in there. Definitely something I can build on. No wonder I keep doing this year after year.