I’ll start!! (Though I’m sure I’ll be wordy enough and have some RL distractions that someone else will get there first.
)
Away From the SunGfic versionNfic versionBack in 2006 is when I finished AFTS, and I’m sure it took me almost a full year to write…maybe less. This story, though I’ve written many in the last year that I would also call favorites, will always be my favorite, my baby. It was the longest thing I’d ever written, the first time I managed an a-plot, the first time I managed an original character, and… it was very much an exercise in self-love and therapy for me. I was (and still remain) so immensely proud of myself for this story. AltClark’s loneliness always tugged at my heart, and it was Yvonne Connell with her AMAZING
Addicted and
Damaged (nfic also available) that made me believe it was possible to have a depressed Clark…and really, it had to be AltClark.
I’ve mentioned before on the boards, I’m sure (and I’m not afraid to have it public now because we need to #endthestigma around mental health), but this fandom pretty much saved my life. I have a history of severe depression and anxiety, and this fandom was here for me through it all. It offered me love and acceptance and escape and hope and friends that I’ve literally been friends with for more than 25 years!!
So write what you know, they always say. Well… I did. I channeled my heart and my soul and my anguish into my AltClark and AltLois and created a world where he was depressed (and yes, suicidal), and he struggles to figure out why everything isn’t magically fixed when he finds his Lois. Don’t worry—there’s very much a happy ending!! But it took work for them to get there…especially since there was a pesky a-plot threatening to kill them!
So yeah… probably TMI, but I don’t care. Because this story will be forever the thing I’m most proud of. I hope you’ll read it if you haven’t already, and if you do/have, I would love to hear your feedback publicly or privately.
Sara
