My Yuletide story is up. I think it's one of the best things I've written, and it's in a fandom that I still love that I haven't written anything in for a while. It's making me want to write more.
My Down the Chimney story is up. It's awful. I'm not proud of it. I'd like to orphan it. But the recipient seemed to enjoy it, so that's all right.
I'm trying to decide whether I should spend my free time meandering around on more fanfic or writing real things. The problem is:
--Fanfic is easy. Path of least resistance. High potential for success.
--Fanfic has a built-in audience and immediate feedback. The egoboo potential is high.
--Original stuff is hard and it can be hard to connect with the characters or flesh out an idea. Potential for dismal and disheartening failure is high.
--Original stuff is likely to be overlooked or rejected in favor of works that are far better than you can ever do or that are total crap. Again, PFDaDF is high.
--I've gotten many compliments on the unique quality of my fanfic, but I find it really hard to transfer that quality to my original stuff. My original writing feels clunky and slapdash to me, except in small doses.
--However, people like my poetry a lot, and the potential for reward in original writing is also very high.
I think what I need to do is write a lot more original stuff until I get it right. I can't expect my first works to be the stuff that gets published. Hopefully, with everything I write, I'll learn and improve. Also, now that I've won NaNoWriMo, I think I may not try to do it again unless I really need a boost at that time--I won it, yes, but the thing I wrote was a terrible slog.
While I'm trying to choose what to work on next, I'm also going to try to put together a chapbook. I've been working on jewelry to try to sell at the Bizarre Bazaar at OTBP, and if I have enough done by early February or so, I'll team up with my mom and work on things. I'd like to work on sewing more things, but the problem is that sewing takes longer and tends to be more complicated, so the time I'd put into sewing something provides less of a profit in terms of productivity. I think I'll probably work on making some drawstring bags for this one, and try to perfect some more interesting styles for the next.
Also been cooking. I got a new immersion blender, and in the past few days have chopped up spinach for Florentine/saag dishes, made vodka applesauce and chopped apples with hard sauce, started an orange/ginger-infused vodka (and decanted an apple-infused vodka), and made a huge tray of hummus for a party. Then I made chai powder.
I also made a blog: The Library of Babel. It's all professional-y and stuff. Sara's blog is really taking off, and I whinged about my own blogging style and Kids These Days for a while before I decided to go fucking make my own gimmick. Remember when blogs just used to be blogs and some people found a good style or gimmick and then got readers? Now you have to have a gimmick at the start and then you do twenty good posts and get a damn book deal.
Ultimately, I think I'm afraid that I'm really just a very middle-of-the-road writer, that I don't really have the imagination, skill, or energy to create something that's both original and transcendent. And I feel like most of what I'm doing now is procrastinating, but I don't know what I'm procrastinating.
I might end up trying to write my own life story, how goddamn dull would that be?
*
In happier news, I have a full social life. I've been getting to hang out with some friends from college who now live in a little town 40 miles south of me, and we have been watching samurai movies and Westerns and comparing them. It's nice :)
My Down the Chimney story is up. It's awful. I'm not proud of it. I'd like to orphan it. But the recipient seemed to enjoy it, so that's all right.
I'm trying to decide whether I should spend my free time meandering around on more fanfic or writing real things. The problem is:
--Fanfic is easy. Path of least resistance. High potential for success.
--Fanfic has a built-in audience and immediate feedback. The egoboo potential is high.
--Original stuff is hard and it can be hard to connect with the characters or flesh out an idea. Potential for dismal and disheartening failure is high.
--Original stuff is likely to be overlooked or rejected in favor of works that are far better than you can ever do or that are total crap. Again, PFDaDF is high.
--I've gotten many compliments on the unique quality of my fanfic, but I find it really hard to transfer that quality to my original stuff. My original writing feels clunky and slapdash to me, except in small doses.
--However, people like my poetry a lot, and the potential for reward in original writing is also very high.
I think what I need to do is write a lot more original stuff until I get it right. I can't expect my first works to be the stuff that gets published. Hopefully, with everything I write, I'll learn and improve. Also, now that I've won NaNoWriMo, I think I may not try to do it again unless I really need a boost at that time--I won it, yes, but the thing I wrote was a terrible slog.
While I'm trying to choose what to work on next, I'm also going to try to put together a chapbook. I've been working on jewelry to try to sell at the Bizarre Bazaar at OTBP, and if I have enough done by early February or so, I'll team up with my mom and work on things. I'd like to work on sewing more things, but the problem is that sewing takes longer and tends to be more complicated, so the time I'd put into sewing something provides less of a profit in terms of productivity. I think I'll probably work on making some drawstring bags for this one, and try to perfect some more interesting styles for the next.
Also been cooking. I got a new immersion blender, and in the past few days have chopped up spinach for Florentine/saag dishes, made vodka applesauce and chopped apples with hard sauce, started an orange/ginger-infused vodka (and decanted an apple-infused vodka), and made a huge tray of hummus for a party. Then I made chai powder.
I also made a blog: The Library of Babel. It's all professional-y and stuff. Sara's blog is really taking off, and I whinged about my own blogging style and Kids These Days for a while before I decided to go fucking make my own gimmick. Remember when blogs just used to be blogs and some people found a good style or gimmick and then got readers? Now you have to have a gimmick at the start and then you do twenty good posts and get a damn book deal.
Ultimately, I think I'm afraid that I'm really just a very middle-of-the-road writer, that I don't really have the imagination, skill, or energy to create something that's both original and transcendent. And I feel like most of what I'm doing now is procrastinating, but I don't know what I'm procrastinating.
I might end up trying to write my own life story, how goddamn dull would that be?
*
In happier news, I have a full social life. I've been getting to hang out with some friends from college who now live in a little town 40 miles south of me, and we have been watching samurai movies and Westerns and comparing them. It's nice :)
x-men kinkmeme filled prompts
Sep. 5th, 2011 12:10 amMating Instinct
Admittedly, I prompted this myself and then later thought up a fill for it. The style is kind of pretentious, but I felt like it worked with the conceit. In the movie, there's no question that mutants are a different species, but nobody really plays with that in fanfic. I wanted to try bringing that into a fanfic.
The Angel and the Wise Man
The prompt was "fallen angel and priest." I sometimes get annoyed with how Christian-mythology-centric fanfic can be and try to mix it up by making sure that Jews represent. I'm pleased with how I managed to keep Erik's issues about his own existence and make that work within the framework of his AU persona as an angel cut off from God. This is a work in progress!
Welcome to the Machine
A steampunk prompt. It ended up being more of a tour of the steampunk world I'm slowly formulating via Erik and Charles, with no real action.
More to come! Maybe!
Admittedly, I prompted this myself and then later thought up a fill for it. The style is kind of pretentious, but I felt like it worked with the conceit. In the movie, there's no question that mutants are a different species, but nobody really plays with that in fanfic. I wanted to try bringing that into a fanfic.
The Angel and the Wise Man
The prompt was "fallen angel and priest." I sometimes get annoyed with how Christian-mythology-centric fanfic can be and try to mix it up by making sure that Jews represent. I'm pleased with how I managed to keep Erik's issues about his own existence and make that work within the framework of his AU persona as an angel cut off from God. This is a work in progress!
Welcome to the Machine
A steampunk prompt. It ended up being more of a tour of the steampunk world I'm slowly formulating via Erik and Charles, with no real action.
More to come! Maybe!
(no subject)
Jul. 3rd, 2010 02:47 amEverything I want to write about recently involves secret conspiracies and mind control. I'm not sure what's going on there.
![[community profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sorry for the posting fiesta on anyone who's watching this, I got bored tonight and decided to archive all the fic I've written recently that I've liked enough to post here.
It's gone well, mostly. I'm kind of annoyed because this piece and this piece didn't get a lot of attention from anyone I wasn't already good friends with or had explicitly written it for, but them's the breaks when you're posting on one message board in a tiny fandom where a total of three people bother to read the fanfic anymore.
This piece is going to get published in an actual paper-and-ink zine, and might be illustrated, and everything! Yeah, I'm still excited about that. Go me.
It's gone well, mostly. I'm kind of annoyed because this piece and this piece didn't get a lot of attention from anyone I wasn't already good friends with or had explicitly written it for, but them's the breaks when you're posting on one message board in a tiny fandom where a total of three people bother to read the fanfic anymore.
This piece is going to get published in an actual paper-and-ink zine, and might be illustrated, and everything! Yeah, I'm still excited about that. Go me.
Shuffle Drabbles, Pendergast
Feb. 28th, 2010 05:05 amThe concept: Take a pairing or character, set your music player on "Random," play the first few 5-10 songs (I chose eight), write drabbles based around them.
This set is for Viola. It just kind of happened.
( Robot Spell Kill Folsom Addicted Untold Hair Ramble )
This set is for Viola. It just kind of happened.
( Robot Spell Kill Folsom Addicted Untold Hair Ramble )
Fic, "Happiness," Pendergast
Feb. 28th, 2010 05:04 amTitle: Happiness
Author's Notes: Rule 63, always-opposite-sex mode. Takes place during "Brimstone", but may be counted as AU aside from the genderswap because I ended up veering off the plot.
Warning for: Very slight hints of incest.
( Pendergast had expected Lord Victor Maskelene to be an old man, someone doddering and imperious. )
Author's Notes: Rule 63, always-opposite-sex mode. Takes place during "Brimstone", but may be counted as AU aside from the genderswap because I ended up veering off the plot.
Warning for: Very slight hints of incest.
( Pendergast had expected Lord Victor Maskelene to be an old man, someone doddering and imperious. )
Poem: A Mary Sue Fantasy
Feb. 28th, 2010 05:01 amtitle: a mary sue fantasy i have had about "the man from uncle" when i am nervous about getting or keeping a job
genre: freeform poem
explanation: I was reading some Tao Lin poems, and I was impressed by the aesthetic of writing about incredibly mundane things that other poets would either ignore or glorify. So I decided to poeticize the most mundane fantasy I have ever had.
( drunk poetry )
genre: freeform poem
explanation: I was reading some Tao Lin poems, and I was impressed by the aesthetic of writing about incredibly mundane things that other poets would either ignore or glorify. So I decided to poeticize the most mundane fantasy I have ever had.
( drunk poetry )
Fic: "Wolfsblood," Man from UNCLE
Oct. 6th, 2009 11:50 pm"Wolf's Blood," the Misfits
( It's pumping like it's fucking in my veins/and I feel my vertebrae shaking )
( It's pumping like it's fucking in my veins/and I feel my vertebrae shaking )
Fire Drabble: Modern Art
Oct. 6th, 2009 11:49 pmThey watch the fiery cloud rise above the city. Illya can almost feel heat on his face, cutting through the salt breeze. Beside him, Napoleon makes a strangled moaning sound.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Marinetti asks. The rogue THRUSH anarchist’s face is rapt, sincere. Illya imagines New York, now--monuments of steel and glass twisting into charred lacy tangles, pedestrians vaporized in an instant, their shadows etched into the concrete.
He can hear Napoleon retching over the side of the boat. How odd, Illya thinks distantly. Napoleon never gets seasick.
Marinetti glances at him and shrugs. “Not everyone appreciates modern art.”
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Marinetti asks. The rogue THRUSH anarchist’s face is rapt, sincere. Illya imagines New York, now--monuments of steel and glass twisting into charred lacy tangles, pedestrians vaporized in an instant, their shadows etched into the concrete.
He can hear Napoleon retching over the side of the boat. How odd, Illya thinks distantly. Napoleon never gets seasick.
Marinetti glances at him and shrugs. “Not everyone appreciates modern art.”
Earth Drabble: Golem
Oct. 6th, 2009 11:45 pmThe inside of the Prague compound smells of dead earth and old paper, musty and choking. They smash the carefully sculpted arms and legs and torsos they find in the laboratory, showering the floor with clay. Illya rifles through sheets of crabbed Hebrew he knows are not innocuous as code.
They find Professor Bergl’s severed head in a corner in the laboratory, mouth open in shock, three Hebrew characters--aleph mem tav--carved into the temple. There’s a trail of dry red splashes leading to the smashed door, but it’s impossible to tell by now if they’re clay or blood.
They find Professor Bergl’s severed head in a corner in the laboratory, mouth open in shock, three Hebrew characters--aleph mem tav--carved into the temple. There’s a trail of dry red splashes leading to the smashed door, but it’s impossible to tell by now if they’re clay or blood.
Water Drabble: Rusalka
Jun. 27th, 2009 09:42 pmIllya was seven, and he feared the rusalka in the pond. He saw her blonde hair waving like seaweed, her eyes warm as sky, decoys for the rotting monster he knew lay beneath. He knew she stretched out her long white arms not to hold him, but to drag motherless boys down into the cold.
Through Moscow, Oxford, Paris, New York, he thinks he has left her behind. But he sees her treacherous eyes and strangling arms in the woman his best friend swears is an angel, like her name. Napoleon has no fear, and Illya knows he will drown.
Through Moscow, Oxford, Paris, New York, he thinks he has left her behind. But he sees her treacherous eyes and strangling arms in the woman his best friend swears is an angel, like her name. Napoleon has no fear, and Illya knows he will drown.
hey white boy, what you doin' uptown? hey white boy, you come chasin' all our women around?
Jun. 11th, 2009 08:23 amWhat am I doing that's productive? I'm making a big deal about whether it's valid to read a character as queer (on a board where you can't type "queer" because it gets filtered out, so you have to write "qu33r" instead, which lends the whole thing a weird air of 3dginess) and whether everyone else is just being heteronormative meanies. The way this is going, I'm either going to flounce pretty soon, get banned (not the first time!), or we're going to make such a big kerfuffle that the authors will notice and give the main character a boyfriend (they gave him a girlfriend and saved another character from death because of this board. It could happen! Not likely, but it could!).
Update: I FLOUNCED. MY FIRST TIME EVER. And then I made this.
Oh, and I'm also trying to introduce the idea that Illya Kuryakin could totes be a stoner, maaaaaan.
Clearly, I mainly want to smoke up and get laid.
I'm also doing the crack_van thing for June for Man from UNCLE. So far I've recced Aching Like Birds. Three more to go and I can't remember for the life of me which ones I was going to do.
Update: I FLOUNCED. MY FIRST TIME EVER. And then I made this.
Oh, and I'm also trying to introduce the idea that Illya Kuryakin could totes be a stoner, maaaaaan.
Clearly, I mainly want to smoke up and get laid.
I'm also doing the crack_van thing for June for Man from UNCLE. So far I've recced Aching Like Birds. Three more to go and I can't remember for the life of me which ones I was going to do.
(no subject)
May. 29th, 2009 03:29 pmsurvey from ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elefwin. Comment, receive three fandoms, answer questions.
Pendergast series
01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
drworm convinced me to--another one of our friends had been talking about it for a while, but when drworm started talking about it in his LJ I figured it was worth giving it a shot.
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
Stay; new books come out every year or so, and that's more than enough to keep my interest. Even when the authors eventually stop for whatever reason, I think I'll still love the series. Right now, I'm a little obsessed with it because it is my happy place.
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
Still Life with Crows is my favorite overall book, even though it's a standalone; I love how incredibly out-of-place Pendergast is, and I just love the writing and the sense of atmosphere. Brimstone is my favorite as far as character interaction goes, though. I love how Pendergast and D'Agosta click with each other, and I like that that's when we get to meet Diogenes.
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
I've stayed away from the larger fandom (which seems to be situated mostly at the P&C Yuku boards) for a while, since it sometimes seems like the people at those boards are not even reading the same series as I am, and I do like being in fandoms with people who share my basic interpretation of a thing. But I'm posting there again a little. I don't write much fanfic on my own (except for the Yuletide one), but I do have long discussions and story sessions withdrworm over IM.
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?
I certainly don't begrudge anyone getting into the books, and I actually just randomly recced them to someone online. But I like that there's not a big active fandom for it, particularly on Livejournal or other fannish places. I don't think I'd want there to be an enormous fanfic archive dating back from the 90's or anything like that.
Back to the Future
01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
I found the tapes at a garage sale and watched them when I had nothing else to do, and wanted more.
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
I did sort of move on about a year ago, but I don't think I'll stop liking or being interested in the series or the fanfic or the people. It's just taken a backseat to some other things now.
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
I think some part of me has most of the first movie memorized, but I have a soft spot for the crazy future of the second movie. It's just so colorful and shiny and detailed.
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
I used to pretty heavily. I think I wrote more fanfic for that series than I did for anything else.
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?
Heck of yeah. I know everyone in the world has seen this movie, but it'd be cool to have more people coming in and writing weird porn and making things happen.
Man from UNCLE
01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
drworm was taking a Hitchcock class, and he got a crush on Martin Landau, and then we learned that Marty was in an episode, and I liked it, and there you go.
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
It's not like I totally leave fandoms, but even now it's sort of taking a backseat just because I'm focusing on other things and other fandoms. Sometimes yoy gotta take a break from obsessing.
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
I'm strangely fond of "The Green Opal Affair." It's just so weird and non-linear and completely insane. I also have a soft spot for the Pop Art episode--that was the one that made me realize, oh, they're in on the joke.
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
I've written fanfic and am in the process of writing more. I modthrushies, which is for...uh...lulz. I also participate in discussion because it's easier and less time-consuming than writing fanfiction.
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?
Sure, why not? It's fun.
elefwin. Comment, receive three fandoms, answer questions. Pendergast series
01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
drworm convinced me to--another one of our friends had been talking about it for a while, but when drworm started talking about it in his LJ I figured it was worth giving it a shot. 02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
Stay; new books come out every year or so, and that's more than enough to keep my interest. Even when the authors eventually stop for whatever reason, I think I'll still love the series. Right now, I'm a little obsessed with it because it is my happy place.
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
Still Life with Crows is my favorite overall book, even though it's a standalone; I love how incredibly out-of-place Pendergast is, and I just love the writing and the sense of atmosphere. Brimstone is my favorite as far as character interaction goes, though. I love how Pendergast and D'Agosta click with each other, and I like that that's when we get to meet Diogenes.
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
I've stayed away from the larger fandom (which seems to be situated mostly at the P&C Yuku boards) for a while, since it sometimes seems like the people at those boards are not even reading the same series as I am, and I do like being in fandoms with people who share my basic interpretation of a thing. But I'm posting there again a little. I don't write much fanfic on my own (except for the Yuletide one), but I do have long discussions and story sessions with
drworm over IM. 05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?
I certainly don't begrudge anyone getting into the books, and I actually just randomly recced them to someone online. But I like that there's not a big active fandom for it, particularly on Livejournal or other fannish places. I don't think I'd want there to be an enormous fanfic archive dating back from the 90's or anything like that.
Back to the Future
01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
I found the tapes at a garage sale and watched them when I had nothing else to do, and wanted more.
02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
I did sort of move on about a year ago, but I don't think I'll stop liking or being interested in the series or the fanfic or the people. It's just taken a backseat to some other things now.
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
I think some part of me has most of the first movie memorized, but I have a soft spot for the crazy future of the second movie. It's just so colorful and shiny and detailed.
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
I used to pretty heavily. I think I wrote more fanfic for that series than I did for anything else.
05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?
Heck of yeah. I know everyone in the world has seen this movie, but it'd be cool to have more people coming in and writing weird porn and making things happen.
Man from UNCLE
01: What got you into this fandom in the first place?
drworm was taking a Hitchcock class, and he got a crush on Martin Landau, and then we learned that Marty was in an episode, and I liked it, and there you go. 02: Do you think you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
It's not like I totally leave fandoms, but even now it's sort of taking a backseat just because I'm focusing on other things and other fandoms. Sometimes yoy gotta take a break from obsessing.
03: Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
I'm strangely fond of "The Green Opal Affair." It's just so weird and non-linear and completely insane. I also have a soft spot for the Pop Art episode--that was the one that made me realize, oh, they're in on the joke.
04: Do you participate in this fandom (fanfiction, graphics, discussions)?
I've written fanfic and am in the process of writing more. I mod
thrushies, which is for...uh...lulz. I also participate in discussion because it's easier and less time-consuming than writing fanfiction. 05: Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?
Sure, why not? It's fun.
