It is details like these that make me believe in Abby as a therapist. She is a very impressive character, and yet not a Mary Sue or otherwise irritating.
Wonderful! As someone who's experience with therapy is limited, I have this little niggling doubt that I could be screwing it up completely. On the reassuring side, Abby isn't the most strictly professional of therapists to start with, so a little playing with the line of "realistic therapist" is allowable. Still, it's incredibly reassuring that she does feel like the character she's supposed to be -- especially since about half of the show's dialogue rests on her.
I love the way she's happy to talk about whatever Dan tries to distract her with, and how she gets him to think about the issues associated with these memories, and yet isn't taken in by his attempts at deflection.
To be honest, it's just the way that my muses work at the moment. The Danny-voice in my head refuses to sit down and tell me *precisely* what happened with Casey, or his Dad, and yet he wants to tell me all about the apartment in NYC, and being 5 years old, and thinking it was incredible that his dad could just *make* stuff out of wood. So, yeah.
This, of course, is one of the reasons I love writing SN. If the story starts to ramble, if it starts to lose it's point, it can be forgiven because these characters are masters of the art of saying something by talking about something else.
Related to this is Dan's reaction to her and therapy in general ... He appreciates (deep down) what Abby is doing for him, but doesn't just suddenly decide to expose all his inner thoughts and motivations in one easy session and then is suddenly cured. This is a realistic portrayal of therapy...
*twirls* I'm so glad it works. I always love the way that... oh, a little while after Dan starts seeing Abby, Abby accuses him of wasting his time with her, trying to get her to like him. I love that bit of resistance, because more than anything else, that's the part of therapy that I can relate to (that not wanting to let someone else inside, not trusting their opinion enough, even though intellectually you know they're acting in your best interest). *twirls a little more*
And not to spoil the ending, but it's Danny and Casey. Written by me. There's like a 85% chance that everything will work out well. *g*
On a purely structural level, I like the suspense of trying to figure out what actually happened with Casey.
I'm so glad that works on a suspense level instead of an annoyance level. I love the way that the SN therapy episodes talk about things, and it takes Danny so long to be able to admit what's really up or what really happened (same on M*A*S*H*, actually).
I like the idea of Dan revealing these things little bit by little bit, but to be perfectly honest, it makes keeping the timeline straight kind of difficult. At the moment, I've got most of it sketched out on the back on an envelope, being added to as I write each new bit.
I also like the way we discover all the different things about Dan's life and relationships as he avoids talking about Casey.
I'd... I'd really like to get Dan to healthier state, mentally speaking, before the relationship really gets serious. (Huh. From that perspective, this really is the Dan-centric version of "Love, Sex and Homophobia", in that I want the main character to get things sorted out inside his head before the relationship really starts.)
Honestly, I may not be too successful in trying to do that, but, hey. Any improvement on Danny's mental state is still an improvement, so it's all got to help.
Also, while this is a cohesive fic, it does have variety - the fact that Dan actually called Abby this time, for example. Some days are better than others.
I like that. That 'some days are better than others'. I have to admit I hadn't consciously thought about when Dan called as opposed to when Abby called (as opposed to when Dan avoids her calls), but... yeah. That actually works as a whole. (Go my subconscious. I love the way it tries to avoid me screwing things up by not telling me about them until they're done.)
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zvi and
no subject
Date: 2004-10-21 04:52 am (UTC)It is details like these that make me believe in Abby as a therapist. She is a very impressive character, and yet not a Mary Sue or otherwise irritating.
Wonderful! As someone who's experience with therapy is limited, I have this little niggling doubt that I could be screwing it up completely. On the reassuring side, Abby isn't the most strictly professional of therapists to start with, so a little playing with the line of "realistic therapist" is allowable. Still, it's incredibly reassuring that she does feel like the character she's supposed to be -- especially since about half of the show's dialogue rests on her.
I love the way she's happy to talk about whatever Dan tries to distract her with, and how she gets him to think about the issues associated with these memories, and yet isn't taken in by his attempts at deflection.
To be honest, it's just the way that my muses work at the moment. The Danny-voice in my head refuses to sit down and tell me *precisely* what happened with Casey, or his Dad, and yet he wants to tell me all about the apartment in NYC, and being 5 years old, and thinking it was incredible that his dad could just *make* stuff out of wood. So, yeah.
This, of course, is one of the reasons I love writing SN. If the story starts to ramble, if it starts to lose it's point, it can be forgiven because these characters are masters of the art of saying something by talking about something else.
Related to this is Dan's reaction to her and therapy in general ... He appreciates (deep down) what Abby is doing for him, but doesn't just suddenly decide to expose all his inner thoughts and motivations in one easy session and then is suddenly cured. This is a realistic portrayal of therapy...
*twirls* I'm so glad it works. I always love the way that... oh, a little while after Dan starts seeing Abby, Abby accuses him of wasting his time with her, trying to get her to like him. I love that bit of resistance, because more than anything else, that's the part of therapy that I can relate to (that not wanting to let someone else inside, not trusting their opinion enough, even though intellectually you know they're acting in your best interest). *twirls a little more*
And not to spoil the ending, but it's Danny and Casey. Written by me. There's like a 85% chance that everything will work out well. *g*
On a purely structural level, I like the suspense of trying to figure out what actually happened with Casey.
I'm so glad that works on a suspense level instead of an annoyance level. I love the way that the SN therapy episodes talk about things, and it takes Danny so long to be able to admit what's really up or what really happened (same on M*A*S*H*, actually).
I like the idea of Dan revealing these things little bit by little bit, but to be perfectly honest, it makes keeping the timeline straight kind of difficult. At the moment, I've got most of it sketched out on the back on an envelope, being added to as I write each new bit.
I also like the way we discover all the different things about Dan's life and relationships as he avoids talking about Casey.
I'd... I'd really like to get Dan to healthier state, mentally speaking, before the relationship really gets serious. (Huh. From that perspective, this really is the Dan-centric version of "Love, Sex and Homophobia", in that I want the main character to get things sorted out inside his head before the relationship really starts.)
Honestly, I may not be too successful in trying to do that, but, hey. Any improvement on Danny's mental state is still an improvement, so it's all got to help.
Also, while this is a cohesive fic, it does have variety - the fact that Dan actually called Abby this time, for example. Some days are better than others.
I like that. That 'some days are better than others'. I have to admit I hadn't consciously thought about when Dan called as opposed to when Abby called (as opposed to when Dan avoids her calls), but... yeah. That actually works as a whole. (Go my subconscious. I love the way it tries to avoid me screwing things up by not telling me about them until they're done.)
*beams* *starts twirling again*