Outrun: stage one

[noncorporealform]

i've been trying to write a cyberpunk stucky au for years.

years

i started working on it again this week.

i'd really like to have a working multi-chapter fic, but i'm also working on three other multi-chapter wips and as per usual i'm worried about whether or not i can finish everything that i put my mind to.

that said.

i might be onto an original cyberpunk idea here. the problem earlier was that i was borrowing tropes and it didn't feel like its own thing. it was following the (sometimes problematic) paths that are already prevalent in things i've seen and read. but if i'm right, i can finally get to work on this sucker and have something to be proud of.

Comments

[jinlinli]

Oh! What are you thinking for your cyberpunk idea if you don't mind me asking? I know what you mean tho. Cyberpunk is an absolute bear to write because even though the aesthetics are really fucking cool and leave a lot of room for creativity, it feels like the genre has kinda run out of material to chew through when it comes to theme.

[noncorporealform]

you're so right, cyberpunk is hard for exactly those reasons. my biggest problem is that the genre has said everything it wants to say, so i'm trying to find something i'd like to say and use the genre's aesthetics and creative muscle to do it.

right now i'm leaning hard on the idea of how catastrophe, especially environmental catastrophes, will be handled in the future, and the current (horrifying) way that media narratives get written about the impact. not just that but who's controlling those narratives and who stands to gain. i get to use the good old evil corporation staple, and there'll be some high-tech lowlives that steve hangs out with.

then in the middle of it steve spends a lot of time in a sentry robot body and bucky is inhabiting ruins with scavengers and they're trying to find their way back to each other (as soon as they realize that the other did not die in the Catastrophe).

[jinlinli]

Ohh, I love the media angle you're going with. I think that there's still a lot of unplumbed depths about how media impacts the way we see the world. It's certainly frequently touched upon, but I don't think anyone's quite gotten enough of a handle on it to really explore it with the degree of nuance and complexity that the subject requires. It's a difficult beast to tackle, but one that's really worthwhile in this day and age.