A Series of Firsts

My first-ever entry to the avatar_500 is also my first  Legend of Korra fanfic. This is the story that goes with an earlier post where I compared Book 1: Air to Atlas Shrugged. I have never entered anything into a fiction contest or prompt of any kind and hope to do more of it in the future.

But man, the 500-limit word count was a bitch to keep, especially since I was trying to emulate the preachy run-on style of Atlas Shrugged. I went seventy words over the limit and had to cut entire paragraphs. On that note it's also the shortest story I've ever written. It's good practice, as previous interviewee amanda_violet has said. It forced me to frame scenes aggressively and to edit down to the bone of the story.

As It Should Be is a first in less comfortable ways, too. It's the first time I've written fanfic from a place of anger, and it's the most sarcastic piece of fiction I've ever written. I've written fanfic before out of curiosity or mild frustration with the original work (Two Realizations come to mind), but never while dwelling on how much I dislike the original work. (Two original works in this case, since I rolled the main things I hated about Book 1: Air and Atlas Shrugged into the story.) That doesn't feel right, since I think fanworks should be works of love and not derision. On the other hand it helped me focus and deal with my feelings about the show.

If I write more LoK fanfic I'll still be critical of Book 1's faults, but I hope that little story, a first for me in so many ways, took the pressure off and that I won't feel the urge to do any more rage-ficcing.

Edit: It won second place! Thanks to attackfish for an excellent job on the banner. Weird round, though, with four entrants and four winners in a three-winner contest (three were tied in second place). More work for attackfish--though because the universe is occasionally fair, the first-place banner was for herself--but good times for the recipients. :)