Distillation and the Style of GaPJaxie · 3:48pm Jul 26th, 2020
Have some new content for your lazy Sunday reading pleasure!
M E T E O R
So as the story description implies, this fic is my attempt at imitating the style of one of fimfiction's heavyweight killers GaPJaxie. I've been sleeping on his stories for years, ever since Cold in Gardez mentioned him in his barcast interview. But I didn't know what a monumental mistake I was making not reading his work until I finally cracked the cover of his "Third Wheel" saga. This fic, along with its sequels, deserve their place in the fimfic required reading list. FIGHT ME if you think otherwise.
What makes them so good? The story is compelling, yes. But the strongest quality is Jax's style. Remember when I called Jax a killer several paragraphs ago? He is actually a killer. A killer of chaff. To mix metaphors, if your average fimfic is a nice cold beer, Jax's writing is Bacardi 151. He seems to take the "kill your darlings" principle to its ruthless extreme. The result is writing that reads at a ruthless clip yet still manages to inbue each word with a colossal amount of weight. The great balancing act of writing, as with all art, is to express complex thoughts in simple packages. Denser writing can convey more on its face at a cost of being ungainly and slow. Lighter writing needs to be more intentionally crafted in order for an equal amount of meaning to be conveyed, as said meaning is more confined to subtext.
Jax's writing is pointedly straightforward, but all the meaning that's normally confined to subtext is super accessible, even at the relentless pace at which it reads. Take this example:
Looking out into the streets, [Twilight] could see the ponies of Ponyville fleeing in all directions, dashing for their homes and scooping up their children. One unicorn with noble intentions but little sense fired a laser blast into the sky.
The sun was setting over Ponyville. When Twilight tried to follow the laser blast to its intended target, she had to squint into the sky. All she could see were vague black dots against the sun. The dots flew in formation.
The dots flew in formation.
DUDE
DUDE
Not once in this chapter does Jax say there are bombers over the town. He doesn't even use the word bombers. He found the most absolutely efficient way to tell you there are bombers, and they're far away, but they're coming, and they're bombers, so be afraid. It communicates the military nature of the intruders, the scale of the attack, and the vague sense of fear associated with seeing something unknown coming towards you and realizing, as another character notices in a following line, that you are a target. The dots flew in formation. Shake my friggin head, man. So good.
There are tons of examples like this sprinkled throughout the work, by the way. Read the entire saga and find all the times Jax uses the sentence "Cheval ate it" and TELL ME those aren't the most loaded three words of literature ON THIS SITE.
Anyway
Hope you all enjoy "Meteor!" Jax, if you're reading this, you're a baller. Thanks for sharing your stories.
