2008-07-25 15:21 writing about writing Public

I used to have a bunch of essays up on my site on various fannish topics, but I took them down when I redesigned, because I just wasn't sure how I felt about them any more. Most of them were written in the late 90s, and I called them rants at one point, but they really weren't; I don't rant well. I've been thinking about making annotated versions, looking at my opinions then compared with now, to see how things have changed. I was going to start with the oldest, but as it turns out, I'm starting with the most recent instead, about writing, because I've referenced it a couple of times lately when talking to people and that's easier to do when you can point to the actual text.

This essay started as a few notes to a mailing list called zendom, when said mailing list discussed writing tips back in, I think, the spring of 2002. Then I went to Red Rose con in the summer of 2002 and talked a whole lot more about writing during a panel there. I typed up my notes when I came home.

When I wrote the panel talk up as an essay, I didn't really change very much about it, particularly when it comes to address: the text addresses "you" as in the members of a listening audience that had come to a panel because of an active interest in writing advice. (Or so I hoped at the time. Could be everyone was there to check out the nervous babble.) Posting on the web makes a considerable difference; it's not like when I could look out at fifteen people in a room and make eye contact.

I guess you could call this the DVD commentary. I've got some comments about my own writing advice, but I've also got comments about the way I gave writing advice, and about the way things have changed in the past six years. I tend to think of 2002 as a transitional year; for me personally, it was the year of finding popslash and thinking a lot about RPF and new ways of writing, and also moving to livejournal and thinking a lot about the structure of fandom and new ways of interacting. And while I don't think other people followed the exact same timeline, I kind of suspect I'm not the only one who can look back and see a change round about then.

Essay behind the cut! Comments to the essay are in blockquotes.


( a lot of writing about writing )

But seriously, write what you like is the important part. No, really.

34 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-07-24 17:42 weather, birthday, criticism, brains Public

It's very hot today, with a bunch of clouds hanging around looking as though they'd rather be off somewhere else, raining. The sweetpeas are in bloom, finally, and smell wonderful. Possibly they are celebrating elynross's birthday, yay her.

Lots of talk about concrit here and there, like summer reruns when you turn on the tv. synecdochic has a post here that's all kinds of analytical and whatnot. Me, I feel unbelievably un-analytical. I feel more like someone whose brains are slowly melting out her ears. I'm pondering the notion that people might want to add a line to their story headers about whether they want concrit or not, and I think it would take more than a line. Paragraphs, even. That people might not read. But it's a good thought.

Me, I accept all comments, if not with equanimity, at least with interest. I like to know what worked for people and what didn't work, and most definitely why. But I freely admit to not being very good at talking about my stories at length (unlike synecdochic, whose stuff is just generally more thought-through than mine), so if people want to get a good rousing discussion going, I think they're better off posting in their own journals or a suitable community, in order to have it with more people involved who are not me. I'd be perfectly willing to link to such a discussion for greater exposure (or pretend it doesn't exist if that makes people more comfortable). Particularly if someone wants to talk about their dislike of something, I'm probably not the ideal discussion partner, unless "um, okay then" is all the response necessary.

In not-so-brief: feel free to use my stories as examples of whatever you think they're examples of, good or bad, and to talk about them either behind my back or to my face, whichever you please. Also to review, comment briefly or extensively on, criticize, recommend, warn people away from, make fun of, do interpretive dance versions of, remix, write your own sequels to, etc, said stories. Or print them out so you can have a ritual burning. Story bad, fire pretty.

(If you remix or write sequels, just put in a line of credit to the original. Similarly if you want an OC; you don't have to ask me, but a line about how M. A. Risou is from That Story I Can't Remember The Name Of by torch would be good.)

I do get the whole "concrit is for the beta process!" thing that people frequently say, though. I mean, if someone drops a comment on a story here to point out that I've got three typos in a sentence and also the sun would have set three hours earlier in that season on that latitude, I will turn pink and say "omg eep thank you" and do some fixing. But any you-should-change-this on a larger scale than that, well, certainly I'll read it and if I agree with it, I'm going to remember it for next time, but it's unlikely to have any kind of immediate result. Except for that person getting to air their views, of course, which is a fine thing in and of itself as long as they weren't actually expecting me to rewrite the entire story, because then, crushing disappointment ahead. I might very well agree with the criticism, but I'll still be too lazy for that.

Especially on a day like this. Brains. Leaking. At a pace pretty much like the very last honey trickling out of a jar.

46 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-07-23 13:47 my hands are tired, my heart aches (or maybe the other way around) Public music small child with plastic whistle, outside

Link of the day: Laura Hale: Sole proprietor of a unique marketing opportunity, a post by liviapenn about LH's plans to make money off fandom. I particularly like the bit about how she deducts her cell phone and her zines as business expenses.

(If you're wondering what's going on and would like to backtrack a little, this post by jacquez has a number of informative links if you scroll down a bit.)

3 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-07-21 09:22 what dreams may come Public

Mrrph. I dreamed that Dean turned into some kind of evil snake-monster (reptile-ish, anyway) and I was the one who had to shoot him. That might have gone better if it hadn't been so dark outside, and if I'd been wearing my glasses, and if I'd had enough bullets instead of running around trying to scavenge them from the pockets of other people who had already tried and been killed and were lying around in little heaps, and if the gun had been normal instead of loading in a completely weird way that I never quite got the hang of. And Dean kept switching back and forth from Winchester to snake-monster every time I tried to take aim at him.

Also, for reasons unknown to me, Angel was "helping" me by giving me a lot of useless advice and generally standing around and being smug and obnoxious like a judge in a reality show contest. And all Sam did was place himself in a suitably fetching spot of moonlight and weep crystalline tears, which was also completely useless, but at least he wasn't trying to kill me for trying to kill the Dean-monster, so I might have to count that as being kind of helpful, in a way.

Conclusion drawn from this dream: well, I am certainly no Buffy. Also, I shouldn't eat anything late at night.

12 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-07-16 21:56 cooking, not cooking, books, waves, tv shows Public

The mint report: minted peas are delicious. So is mosellegreen's cucumber mint soup. Yay! I'll try some of the recipes that involve actually heating lots of stuff up once the weather stops being so ooky and muggy.

I bought four books yesterday, and have read two of them and started a third. Am reminded once again why I'm not allowed to buy books, much. It's too expensive, and my shelves are too crowded already. (Fanfic has so saved me a lot of money over the years.) I should hang out more at my local library. Or join the book club thingy at work, except whenever I've read one of their choices, it's been nothing but painful. Their preferences in literary fiction are not mine, and apparently I'm not willing to broaden my horizons. At least not in that direction. I can only take so much of For the World Is Hollow and I Have Lost the Plot*.

All the wave theory posts on metafandom made me grin. Coming up next, a wave theory of wave theories? Not all that unrelated: I poked a little at my essays today, the ones that used to be on my web page. It's kind of fun to see how my opinions have changed, and how fandom has changed. Maybe I'll do little annotated ten year anniversary editions, or something.

* Yes, I have been watching TOS. marycrawford sits me down and tells me what episode to cue up, and then brainwashes me by telling me repeatedly to look at Uhura's legs. Not that it takes much persuading, mind. Also I've watched all the Little Mosque on the Prairie that I've been able to find (am sadly missing some random eps of s2), and am now in withdrawal. My love for Fatima cannot be textually rendered.

10 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-07-12 12:31 Summer of mint Public

For reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture, I acquired two mint plants back in May. (Okay, full disclosure, they were left over at the end of a bartending gig.) I took them home and repotted them and figured they were cheap supermarket herbs-inna-pot and would die on me in a week or so.

This did not happen. The mint loved my kitchen, and still loves it; those two plants have taken over most of the windowsill and try to make a move on the hibiscus whenever my back is turned. In order not to wake up one day and find the kitchen table occupied by little minty stormtroopers, I've started putting mint leaves in everything I can think of. Bulgur salad with fresh mint. Mint lemonade. Mint and cucumber water. Sliced strawberries with mint and lime and a pinch of muscovado sugar, that's brilliant (and a splash of lime mixer if you should happen to have a lot of lime mixer left over, see above re: bartending). On Sunday I'm going to try a mint and soy marinade on grilled meat.

But I'm running out of ideas, whereas the mint plants seem to be just hitting their stride. If anyone happens to have some recipes handy that feature mint, a lot of mint, I would be pathetically grateful if you'd share.

64 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-07-07 17:04 I aten't dead Public tags fiction, spn

If livejournal did away messages, that subject line would be mine. The longer I wait to post, the less I can think of anything to say; once you fall off the fannish merry-go-round, it's tricky to jump back on again, even if it looks like shiny fun. (Of course, sometimes it looks like the Bad Idea Bears are in charge of it, and then I wonder if I really want to. (I need to rediscover my cheerful, positive side. (I know I have one somewhere.))) But merryish and luzdeestrellas took one of my prompts for spnflashfic, so I felt I had to write a story for it. And what do you know, this writing stuff is fun.

1621 Coachman Lane
Rating: G or PG or something
Genre: Gen. May contain traces of peanuts het.
~1,700 words, beta by merryish and aka_arduinna
Summary: Three days of iced tea, a heatwave, and minding the neighbors' business.

Maybe I'll try that again sometime.

5 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-04-29 18:08 the joys of Tuesday Public tags books, private lives

There is too much public sex in the air, and I cannot stop sneezing.

But I spent the entire afternoon wandering from sunny park bench to shaded park bench and back again, watching squirrels and ravens and deer, finishing The Trouble with Physics and rereading my favorite bits of The Virtu and contemplating the fact that I have the next six days off. Even with the sneezing, life is pretty good.

16 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-04-27 16:58 icon meme Public tags icons, memes

Almost a month ago, I asked kassrachel to tag me for this icon meme, and she did, and I... totally forgot about it until I saw copracat post that very same meme today. Fortunately, icon memes age well. This is how it goes:

01. Reply to this post (ask for the meme...) and I will pick six four of your icons.
02. Make a post and talk about the icons I chose.
03. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
04. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon squee. Whoo!

kassrachel ( asked me about )

Ask away, if you feel that way inclined (and really, who doesn't like talking about their icons...). I'll be here, or at least mostly here, in between making pizza and planting sweet peas and repotting the pansies. Oh, and moving the rhubarb. What a hectic season spring is. *snicker*

10 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link

2008-03-30 11:21 It's a meme, it's poll, it's a... Public tags memes, pairings, poll

I kept seeing this meme zip by, and for a while I thought I would do a version with all the pairings I've ever read and written. Then, when I got over laughing at that idea, I thought maybe just all the pairings I've ever written. Then I got over that idea, too.

This is more random: some pairings that I've really, really loved writing, some pairings I hunt out first when I'm reading, some pairings I sigh happily or heartbrokenly over, or just have a Thing for.

Do you share these pairings with me?

( behind a cut seems safest )

I turned my lights off last night at 8, but I think it was just me and the king. Did anyone else?

19 yes really | no really | remember | Tell a Friend | link