I'm making some changes to the keywords data sheet and I need to find as many introspective vignettes as possible. You know the ones - those little vignettes which are nothing but the thoughts/musings of a character.

Note I'm not asking for story recommendations here, so these wouldn't just be your favourites. I'm looking for every single introspective vignette on the Archive. So any and all examples from you guys, that you recall, would really help.

Thanks!

LabRat

Well, since you made clear that you are not looking for recommendations but only for as many relevant stories as possible, I'll go ahead and mention several of my own stories.

I believe my "Letting the Cat Out of the Bag," "Dr. Friskin's Letter" and "Moving On" would definitely qualify. Not sure about whether my "You are Different" would; it is a letter from Lois to Clark that shares her thoughts about how Clark differs from humans. "If Looks Could Kill" is the whammiest story I have ever written or am ever likely to write. My "Sic Transit Ralph's Pagoda" is a vignette of Ralph's musings.

Hope that helps,
Lynn

My story "The Last Son of El" is introspective for both Lois and Clark as they think about the possiblity of not being able to have babies.

Hope this helps!

How long is a vignette, Labrat? I can think of a few introspective "shorts" but whether they're vignettes, I don't know.

c.

Thanks for the info so far, guys. Keep 'em coming. These all sound like just the thing.

@ Carol: Actually, length isn't really a technical issue here. Basically what I'm looking for is a story that has no specific plot - it's not especially a tearjerker, or action-packed or whatever. It's just a character musing on a situation.

I used vignette because they generally are very short, the specifics of the theme doesn't usually lend itself to anything very long. So whether you call them very short or vignette or short - makes no difference really. It's the theme which is important. I doubt there's a story out there which is introspective musing that's a long story - but if there was, I would like to hear about that one, too!

LabRat

Oh, based on what you just wrote, Labby, I think my twin stories, "Lois' Card" and "Clark's Card" would also count. They are the cards each wrote the other for their first anniversary.

Joy,
Lynn

Hmmm...I actually have a long vignette ready to post soon. Keep an eye out for 'What Is Eternal.' Hopefully going to do the final edit tonight for it.

I think my "I'll Be Around" would count. Not so sure about "No Greater Love."

On the theory that certain authors are more prone to writing vignettes than others, I started trolling through the archives by author. Here are the vignettes from the A page:

Alicia U.:

-At First Sight
-Back Home
-My World
-Some Things Never Change
-Speed
-Twenty Years
-The View
-View From the Other Side

Angelic Editor:

-Always
-Crisis of Faith
-Eyes Wide Shut
-For Better or Worse
-Not-So-Split Decision
-A Pound of Flesh
-Seconds

Anonpip:

-A Disaster of Intergalactic Proportions
-Don't Fall
-Heartbeats and Other Sounds
-Perceptions
-Time to Tell

Anonymous:

-Another Long Night

Anti-Kryptonite:

-I Sense That I Love You series (five parts)
-Justified Delusion
-That's Who He Is

Aromassa:

-Vignette a la Lois

I'm happy to skim through the other author listings if that helps, just not all in one night.

Happy

Lynn, those are exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. DC and HG - excellent. I'll add them to the list.

LabRat

I think my Revelations qualifies as well as Defender of the Helpless ...and a lot of Antikryptonite's shorts.

I noticed HappyGirl mentioned a few but I think there are more to add:
A Father\'s Kryptonite
Lighter than air, better than gravity
And Me, myself, and you

Wow, I'm honored to know you remember so many of my stories, mozartmaid! But I think you forgot your 'Frigid!' Amazing story, and very introspective (always a plus, in my mind!).

Thanks AntiK. I did forget 'Frigid' cause it's not in the archive yet... LabRat, it's on my to-do list...along with getting 'The European Adventures of Lois Lane' prepared for the archive (not fitting into this category, I don't think)

Wow - thanks, HG! And if you come up with more, all the better.

@Mozartmaid - I'll look forward to receiving them.

LabRat

Well, Newton\'s Law only has one line of dialogue. Does that count?


B

Well, aside from those already mentioned, a few of my favorites that I have written down are:

David: 'Incompatible' and 'The More Things Change.'

Jessi Mounts: 'To My Love.'

Sara: 'Full Of Grace.'

Rachel White: 'In His Arms' and 'My Definition Of Bliss.'

Angelic Editor and Ann Sidbrant: 'Some Kind Of Fantasy.'

Caroline K: 'Extraordinary' and 'When It Rains.'

Editor Jax: 'Rain.'

Laura S: 'We Always Rewind The Best Part.'

Christine Carr: 'Touch,' 'Life Lessons I: Clark,' and 'Life Lessons II: Lois.'

Anonpip: 'Going Her Way' and 'My Partner.'

mozartmaid: 'I'd Know You Anywhere.'

Catharine Bruce: 'You're Here.'

Hope that helps!

Thanks! That's another one I forgot about! I'll be sending that one along too, LabRat....

Thanks for the input, AK - you guys are the best.

Mozartmaid - thanks for the submissions. I'll get right on those.

LabRat

Would my own "In Space, No One Can Hear You..." count?

Here's what I came up with from the B authors (I trust that you're checking these before you add them to your list in case you and I don't have the same criteria.):

Bob Bartholomew:

-100 Meters
-Why?

Bella:

-Daydreaming

Bethy:

-It's Not Easy Being Me
-It's Never Easy Being Me (These may not be what you're looking for, so please check.)
-When You Need My Love

Bren Ren:

-Seeing Clearly At Last

Kathy Brown:

-A True Partnership

LabRat:

I believe my The Yodeler\'s Song about Perry musing about how he figured out CK=S qualifies. Unless you were looking for just CK or LL vignettes.

Thanks, everyone - I'll check these out.

No, not at all, Virginia. Musings from any character at all. I think there are even some - but the author and title escape me - where there are musings from inanimate objects, which would also fit my criteria. And definitely there are a few villains around. So doesn't just have to be Lois/Clark.

LabRat

Oh, I forgot about those. I posted three such vignettes on the MB. I grouped them together on the archive under the title 'Three Guess Who's Talking Challenge Responses.'

Joy,
Lynn

I thought Pam had one, but that was Battle of the Network Printers, which actually had dialogue. And there was that challenge a few years back, if I recall correctly, that wanted fics from inanimate objects. And, of course, the ficus fics. But heck if I can find them now.

I remember there was a fish, I think, and a coffee mug? They might not be as I recall them, but I'm fairly sure they were just introspection and nothing else.

LabRat

Hindsight

Labby,

Just to clarify since I'm trolling the archives for these stories, are you looking for stories with primarily introspection or only introspection? Many of what I think of as introspective vignettes contain a little dialog or other action either at the very beginning or end or sprinkled sparsely throughout which gets the character thinking, IYKWIM. Are we ruling out anything that contains *any* dialog or action at all?

Happy

That's right, HG - no dialogue, no action, just thoughts. If it has a paragraph, say, of action, narrative or dialogue bracketing the thoughts or a line of dialogue at the end, perhaps, that would be on the borderline and could be included, but not much more than that, for my purposes.

It's actually amazing how many stories I remember as introspection which aren't - for my purposes at least. I was looking up a few I recalled last night - Anna's fish vignettes for two - and realised they had much more dialogue and narrative around them than I'd recalled.

LabRat

Okay, that's going to narrow down the list a lot. You'll definitely want to check the lists that I already gave you because, as you say, a lot of them have a little action or dialog to set the scene, as it were.

Well, in that case, EditorJax's 'Rain' wouldn't count, and neither would Anonpip's 'My Partner.' And of mine, the only ones that would qualify would be 'That's Who He Is,' and the five 'I Sense That I Love You' stories. The rest all have dialogue and even some action.

I'm not sure about Catharine Bruce's 'You're Here'; I actually don't think it got submitted to the archives because I couldn't find it when I went to look. I might have just read it on the boards, but I don't remember how much dialogue it had.

Sorry about that.

I went through my stories to help you, LabRat. The only one that contains no dialogue or anything else even setting the scene, is Creative Writing . It's a composition, with the topic given at the top; I think it should count, though.

I was thinking of a few other stories too but I checked them and they have some dialogue/"action" in... I'll let you know if I remember anything else.

I've now had a chance to add these into the datasheet and just wanted to thank everyone again for their responses. These were a tremendous help.

Thanks!

LabRat

If it's not too late....apparently I've written a lot of these.

Dreams, Legacy, Poet, Rain, Rapture.

Beauty has one sentence, making it borderline.

Moments has lovemaking, but is otherwise all introspection.

Hmmm.

Not at all too late and I should have thought of these right off the bat, of course! Some of the most beautiful examples of the genre. Thanks for reminding me.

LabRat