Olivia Sutton's Fanfic Journal

OK-- so I don't use this journal much, but when I do-- I post like crazy.

I did post my short Psych story here, because I'm going to go over to the communities Psych and Shawn_lassiter and apologise for screwing-up, and see if I can get some directions on how to link.  I figure I owe 'em that much.  But, after that I'm sticking with archives that I understand, like fanficnet and hopefully psychfic.

A couple of things on how I normally view the characters on Psych (yes, the story I posted has a OCC Henry, for me).   I like all of the characters on Psych.  All of them.  Shawn's a great character, as he should be being the lead on the show.  But I must confess-- I like Henry, and I really like Lassiter.  And Lassie's much closer to my age anyways.  Shawn's a lot younger than me (and he looks even younger than he is, if the character is 30 like the fanfic I've read suggests-- which can be wrong, but you know, you gotta' start with your assumptions somewhere).

Starting my my assumptions about Shawn's mom.  From what I've seen of canon, we literally know nothing, absolutely nothing about her.  My assumption had been that she had died young, possibly either in childbirth or when Shawn was, like, a toddler (I'm thinking he was younger than five).  Either way-- Shawn and Henry don't talk about her, because Shawn doesn't remember his mother and for Henry it's too painful to talk about.   That's normally my suposition number one.

Second-- Henry never expected to be a single parent (and sorry, but he was-- Henry's the only one in the flashbacks, and if there was a mother in the picture, Do you really think she'd let Henry bring Shawn to play poker in the police station?  Really?).   I honestly think Henry just wasn't prepared for all the child-rearing responsibility for Shawn, by himself.   I also figure that Henry was raised in much of the same way as he in turn raises Shawn.  It's a rare parent that does the exact opposite of how they were raised (it can happen, but most people behave like they know.  Or so I'd think, and I've seen from my friends and relatives with kids.)

Third-- Henry really does love Shawn, and Shawn, in return, loves his Dad.  They're just too alike to not argue all the time.  Shawn might disagree with some of what Henry says and does ("Just call them a hippy and get over with it," "Meat is Murder...") but underneath all that...  Well, that's something for my long Psych fic, that I'm working on.

NOW-- the short fic I've floated out there?   Throw everything I've said out the window.  It's a totally, and completely, different take on Henry, Lassiter, and Shawn.   Hey-- I had an idea, that idea took me in a certain direction and I ran with it.  And since I liked the result-- I pubbed it.  In my head I had a lot more (abeit fuzzy) detail that didn't go into the story-- like what was IN the file that Lassiter read (photos, doctor's reports, nurse's reports, psychologist's reports, social worker's reports-- not to mention the reports of the cops and IA officers who investigate Henry.  Plus trial transcripts.)  If I do a sequel, which I'm not planning, all that detail will probably go into the story, like one of my normally long fics.  I'd also probably have to get into Mrs. Spencer's headspace a bit-- a scary place I'm not interested in exploring, as well as more of Shawn's.  As it is-- I've got Shawn blaming his father for everything, and not his mother.  But anyway...

So now you know the whole long, boring story behind the fic.

--Olivia