White Ceiling

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Fanfiction
Title: White Ceiling
Author(s): Arduinna
Date(s): December 12, 1997
Length: 8681 words
Genre(s): slash
Fandom(s):
Relationship(s):
External Links: at Archive Of Our Own

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White Ceiling is a Jim/Blair story by Arduinna.

It was written for the Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge.

This story was a 2004 Light My Fire Awards nominee.

Author's Summary: "Jim realizes the price of cowardice and self-absorption."

Essay Example

She used this story as the base for the essay The Idea Makes the Story... Not.

To illustrate the essay, the author wrote the story three ways.

Excerpt from The Idea Makes the Story... Not

On various lists, the discussion turns to stories -- what makes them good, what makes them worth reading. At some point, usually starting early on in the discussion, there's a chorus of voices arguing that "grammar and spelling and usage and structure and syntax and attention to plot details don't matter; it's the author's *idea* that makes a good story, the author's *imagination*."

That's an interesting concept, but... no. Sorry, but no. Not so. Yes, the idea is key to the story -- but the idea alone does not make the story a good one. Without a carefully crafted support structure, the idea is nothing.

People who think that don't believe me when I say "not so", of course -- so I decided to prove it. I've taken one of my own Sentinel stories, and reworked it, twice. All three versions are linked here; read them in order, and you'll see what I mean. Each version faithfully follows the same plot line -- the *idea* is precisely the same in each. To keep the playing field completely level, I even put each story on an identical page -- no different graphics to distract the reader. If you read these and honestly -- honestly -- believe that each of these stories is deserving of the same amount and kind of praise, criticism, or indifference, please tell me. Because I read these three versions very differently, and I'd really like someone to explain to me how they can be considered equivalent.