Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Need some help with fanfic details...

Hi guys,

I need some help for a fanfic. I'm writing a story in which CK gets hurt, but I need Martha and Jonathan to stay away from Metropolis for at least 3-4 weeks in order to build up a satisfactory level of angst... I can't think of a really good reason why they wouldn't turn up immediately (they always do in the show when CK has a problem, viz. "All Shook Up", "MOSB", "WHALTTA"... You'd think they didn't have a farm to look after!)

I've had some suggestions from a friend:

1. M+J are on a Peace Corps mission and can't get back to the US so quickly.
2. M+J are on a long vacation somewhere with no phones.
3. M+J are too busy on the farm cos it's harvest season.

I'm not sure if any of these would really work, so I'm hoping to hear what you guys think. I especially would appreciate opinions from any of you who actually know about farm life (if either you live on one, or know someone who does) -- for how long does a harvest really tie a farmer up?

Need any ideas you all have. This is for a good cause, namely, potential fic to read in the future!

Thanks!
JM

Well, if you really want to up the angst, perhaps Jonathan - or Martha - could be hurt in some kind of accident, and it's touch or go for him/her so that the spouse would be torn between staying with gravely injured mate or going to gravely injured son. If it fits in your story, anguished phone calls checking up on Clark would work nicely to up the agony.

Irene

One thing that springs immediately to mind is that in ATAI, Martha and Jonathan were about to embark on a European vacation to celebrate their wedding anniversary. I'm sure that would have been a number of weeks, and they wouldn't necessarily have been in contact, especially if they were travelling around.

Anywhere they went on holiday, they might rely on Clark's being able to get hold of them in a hurry rather than leaving phone numbers - or, if he's unconscious, he might be the only one who knows where they are.

Mere

Just a tiny bit of soap box. I would be afraid of doing anything to artificialy up the angst-ante. The biggest reason is - why? Why do you need a certain level of angst? Is it a measure-stick of some kind? Angst isn't a bad thing, but artificial angst for the purpose of just more angst is.

</me gets off soap box>

Now, to add something constructive. I don't think you can use harvest. It just doesn't last that long. My experience is mostly with wheat. I can't see M&J having a large amount of acreage, so the actual cutting will only take a couple days or so. Prepping to get ready for harvest might take a week, but more likely not since most farmers keep their equipment in good condition all the time. After harvest really wouldn't take that long, and there's nothing, really, that can't be put on the back-burner if a loved one needs help.

For that matter, if push came to shove, M&J could hire custom cutters to come in and do all the harvesting for them (or more likely some family friends would help out).

(just an ex-Kansan's opinion...)

I'm with Jeff on both counts.

Harvest time wouldn't sell for me, because they could always hire the work out, if their son was truly hurt/sick/whatever. I know nothing would keep me from my kids under those circumstances, even if I had to lose part of the harvest, etc. (Not that I farm, but you know what I mean.)

The other options could work -- a long vacation, for example -- but as Jeff said, beware of creating artificial angst. If a plot line seems too contrived, you may lose your audience. I'm not saying yours will be -- a good writer can sell a few plot devices -- but it's worth mentioning as something to be on guard about, just in case.

Kathy

Just chiming in here to agree with Kathy and Jeff. I love angst, which will be no surprise to most people here. But I absolutely agree that over-contrived angst is a big mistake. Most of my favourite stories are angsty: Masques, A Love Well Worth the Wait, Faster Than a Speeding Bullet, Love Beyond All Measure/Dimensions of Loving, Tryst, The People v Clark Kent, Rage and many more. However, if I feel that an author is cranking up the angst through means which seem artificial and contrived, I'll quickly get fed up and stop reading.

If there's a logical reason why something happens, or doesn't happen, great. If, say, Martha and Jonathan are on their European tour. If the reason you don't want them there isn't just so that Clark can writhe in even further agony but that, perhaps, he might be forced closer to Lois. Now, that sounds like something I'd enjoy!


Wendy

Thank you Irene and Mere for your suggestions. I actually thought of the injuring Martha or Jonathan one, but was trying to avoid it because there was quite a bit of angst in there already. I was actually considering giving Jonathan a heart attack at one point, but I figured that in that case, CK, no matter how much he was wallowing, would stop wallowing and go to Kansas!

Maybe the Europe trip would be a good idea. Some delay in them getting the news, and then some more delay in them trying to get back... Perhaps they're deliberately uncontactable... How feasible is that, really?

Jeff and Kathy, thanks for the feedback about the farming. That's what I thought, too -- that the harvest wouldn't delay them for that long, and that they could hire people or get friends to help out if they really needed to leave. So that idea's out, then.

And Jeff, Kathy and Wendy, thanks for the note of warning about artificially boosting the angst. I absolutely completely agree with what you are saying, and believe me, I am the first person who would cut out and throw away pages of my story if anything was "over-contrived" and didn't work. That's why I'm looking for a really good reason for them to be away.

If I can't find one, I may just have to make Clark extra grouchy and refusing to talk to them and/or insisting that they don't come to Metropolis, although I'm not sure they'd listen to him if he told them not to come. Plus, even if Clark wouldn't speak to them, Lois would, and that would again defeat the purpose.

I just really need to bring out some of his demons so that some problems can be resolved. If Martha and Jonathan were around, they just would knock sense into his thick (dense molecular structure?) skull before he even got that far into his wallowing. He has to get past that particular hurdle with just himself and Lois. Wendy's quite close to the mark:

WAFFy making-up is all the more fun after the WHAMmy fighting, isn't it? Still, I agree that if the WHAM is too contrived, it has to go. Sigh.

Thanks again, guys.
JM

What if there were a 'community crisis' in Smallville and Martha and Jonathan were already looking after friends/relatives who were injured or who needed help?

Maybe the aftermath of a twister?

Sherry

Hi,

How about a cold or a virus?

Is not good to go out and visit visit someone if your sick you can contagion others.

MAF

What about a storm? Nothing that threatens the Kent place directly, but something big enough that they can't get a flight out. At first, the flight is delayed. Then it's cancelled. Then all the other flights are cancelled. Then the storm takes out some power lines, and the airport gets shut down. So they decide to go across the state to the other major airport, but the roads are blocked with debris. So then... you get the idea.

I remember, during the big blackout last year, my brother-in-law had a heck of a time getting back home. He was off in Texas on buisiness, and ended up having to rent a car and drive home to New York. (Or maybe he picked up a flight from partway a day or two into the drive? I forget...)

Point being... it's a long way from Kansas to Metropolis. If, for any reason, you can't fly over, it'll take you a couple of days. If the Kents are unharmed and Clark is hurt, he probably won't fly out to meet them, either.

Does that work?

Paul

The storm works for one or two days, but wouldn't Clark volunteer to fly them?

Thanks Sherry, Maria, Paul and Emily

Sherry, the "community crisis" is a good idea, but I'm gonna do such evil things to Clark that he would take precedence.

Maria, good idea! I could give either of them something really infectious, so they'd have to be quarantined for a couple of weeks. Chicken pox... Measles... SARS? Hmm... I shall consider this.

The storm's a thought, Paul. I don't think it would hold them up for long enough, though. I need more than a couple of days. One thought about travelling difficulties was to have them out of the country, actually, on a vacation or whatever, in some really backwater place, knowing Martha and have them find it really difficult to get back... roadblocks, flights cancelled, airports closed etc, like you say, but have them even further away from home.

Emily, Clark would volunteer to fly them, but when I'm done with him, he's not gonna be able to

These are all really wonderful ideas, guys. I think I'm beginning to see a solution to my problem here.

/me goes back to writing furiously...

(but don't stop with those ideas, if anyone has any more )

I love FoLC!
JM

A disaster that stops the planes where they're at. After all, my mother-in-law was stuck in Ireland over 9/11... was supposed to leave the Saturday afterwards, didn't leave until the Wednesday after that.

That's a great point. I can't believe I didn't think of it. I was stuck in Istanbul during that same disaster. The first available flight was a week and a half later. You could probably stretch that out a little bit, perhaps? Granted, it'll look odd if M and J are sitting around for four weeks waiting for a flight, but there's at least decent bit of time they could wait...

JD

Okay first point you say CK gets hurt which means:
1. He couldn't have his powers due to kryptonite for him to be able to be injuried or another meteor giving him a concussion.
2. For his injury to last very long the kryptonite exposure would have to be on going for his powers not to return in a couple of days and for him to then heal quickly.

Second point - M & J. If you want them not to be able to go to Clark you can have several things going on:
1. CK wouldn't contact them because he is wallowing particularly if they thought he shouldn't do what lead to the exposure to kryptonite.
2. Have M & J in a very far off country that takes like 2 days to fly back by plane - Australia as an example.
3. Have M or J injuried while on vacation with some type of injury that would be likely for what they were doing - broken bones, severe strains or illness and doctor won't let the sick or injuried person travel. You would have to check with someone with medical knowledge about what sorts of things a doctor would forbide air travel. Like a severe inner ear infection.

Something as simple of tonsilitis (sp) will work. The older you are the more they resist taking them out because for some reason for an older person it is a difficult operation. Anyway it would work. One year I got sick with tonsilitis on March 11 and on April 9th I was still sick and still on antibiotics. Also it gave me so much fluid in my ears that I started going deaf. I'm sure I would not have been allowed to fly due to all the problems I was having with ear pressure from it. So this is really a simple solution.

Have M & J in someplace like Australia and have one of them get a terrible ear infection. Which I have also done on vacation twice. Your around those bacterias your system isn't use to.