Likeable vs sympathetic vs...I don't even know.
I am wrestling with an interesting conundrum in the story I'm currently avoiding writing. ( Read more...Collapse )

It's one thing to think of the most awful act a character can commit, and then plot out how other characters would react to it, while still writing that character as a sympathetic character, someone the reader is supposed to like.

It's another thing entirely when you realize that the perfect act for a character to commit, the thing that would not only make sense of all the half-formed story bits you've been collecting but would actually make it a stronger story than you anticipated...is an act that you, the person writing this story, find so repulsive, so utterly unforgiveable, that you have no idea how you can create a character who is sympathetic yet could commit this act.

This is the right thing for this story. It's a good idea. It's almost, almost, a plot-crystallizing idea, and goodness knows I don't get many of those. I'm just not really a good enough writer to write it. Yet.

Hmmmm. *ponder*

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[writers on writing]
Useful stuff I've found online. ( Read more...Collapse )

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Sonatina For Unaccompanied Minor, Part 3
Part 1

Part 2

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Sonatina For Unaccompanied Minor, Part 2
Part 1

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Sonatina For Unaccompanied Minor, Part 1
Written for recipient athersgeo (no LJ) for Yuletide 2008.

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Current Mood: cheerful

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Yuletide 2008 recs, Round One, Part One
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Current Mood: cheerful

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[so a gunslinger and a ghost hunter walk into a bar]
And, because the ghost hunter is like six foot TWO ZILLION, it whaps him in the head and he falls over. End of story. Ha ha. No.

Okay. So. I waited months and months to watch "Tin Man" (thank you SciFi Channel for starting the buzz over the summer, no seriously I love you guys). And when it finally aired, it was perfect. I mean, not perfect. In many ways it sucked. But it was perfect for fanfiction writers because it left plot holes unfilled and loose ends untied. My kind of fairy tale update.

I was actually--this has never happened to me--bitten by a plotbunny while watching the movie for the first time. ( Read more...Collapse )My interest in the phrase "moved on" is fairly recent, but since I first read it I've been obsessed with another phrase from the Dark Tower novels. Roland travels for a while with a little boy named Jake, and eventually he has to "move on" from Jake because pausing to save him from mortal danger would fatally delay his quest. Jake looks at him and says, "Go, then. There are other worlds than these." That phrase has gotten stuck in my mind for days on end, like a song. Which is partly the Asperger's talking, but partly because Stephen King has an amazing ear for language. ( Read more...Collapse )

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[i am not becoming a mcr fangrrl]
My brain is horribly broken. Whilst wandering through friends-of-friends-of-friendslists, I came across bexless's "Strange Delights", which is a long, plotty, porny, romantic Frank/Gerard first-time h/c.

That's seven descriptors. Six of them are my favorite things in fic, and I liked the story so much that I thought I'd best brush up on the seventh. So I wandered through the f-o-f-o-flists some more and came upon renne's excellent three-part MCR picspam, designed to tell the newbie everything you need to know about why Frank/Gerard should be your One True Pairing. I can't say as I've been converted. Which is good, because the last thing I need is another fandom--especially one based on source material I don't particularly want to watch (or in this case listen to).

But my fangrrl spider-sense is now trying to tell me that, in some of those pictures, Gerard Way looks a lot like...a young Paul Gross. Not the ones where he's outlandishly made up, of course (which is most of them) or the ones where he's screaming or his head's being eaten by long sweaty hair or, you know, where he's a platinum blond (although the platinum blond ones are often very pretty). But some of the ones where he's just kind of sitting around looking pensive, or the ones where he's onstage with normal curly black hair and a bit of eyeliner, or the ones where he's licking things (frequently Frank).

I said it was broken.

Current Mood: dorky

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[soundtrack notes: supernatural]
Artfulness points are given on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is brilliantly subtle commentary in song form and 1 means the lyrics are describing exactly what's happening.

Song points are also given on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is a great song and 1 is "MacArthur Park".

Genre is noted because I kept writing things like "Song Points: 7 if you like punk". Noting the genre takes fewer keystrokes than adding the disclaimer.

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[recs]
I don't rec fanfics very often, mostly because I don't have time. However, the directions my own writing's taken lately has made me think about Mary Sue and how you can have original characters that aren't Mary Sues. Behind the cut are recs for "Supernatural" and "X-Files" fanfic.

Standard disclaimers: The stories recced here almost certainly include sex, graphic violence, and gratuitous pop culture references. The stories may include slash, noncon and schmoop (if you don't know what those are, go look them up and then decide if you want to read my recs) but the recs will have specific warnings if the story contains rape, incest or sexualized torture. I'm aware that the overwhelming majority of fanfic writers are female. However, unless I actually know that a writer has publicly declared herself to be female, I tend to use the gender-neutral pronouns 'hir' and 'sie'.

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Current Mood: creative

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Newlyn Town
An idea for The Thing. I've been thinking about the Mendes sisters. More about that later, but I want to blog this before I forget it: Is the ballad "Newlyn Town" Dan Mendes' story? It's about a good boy who gets married at seventeen and turns outlaw to support his demanding bride. I've been looking for a reason that Dan's first daughter (Josiah, the warrior) might've been born when he was very young, certainly less than twenty. "Newlyn Town" offers a plausible scenario for a teenage groom.

Oh, and the next song on my iTunes is "Brothers In Arms", which must be useful for something, but for who? I'm thinking of the three stories about the three sets of brothers (Nathan and Peter, Dean and Sam, the Donnellys), but it'd be too obvious to have it be about actual brothers. Think about that some more.

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[now it doesn't need to eat your brain anymore]
The Fanfic Crossover That Ate My Brain is going to a me-only filter until further notice. Mostly because I am about to bow to the inevitable and go to the Original Characters Interacting With Canon Characters (and, in some cases, Inserting Original Characters Into Canon Mythology) and it is unlikely to be pretty.

"The Slave Of Duty" is also going to a me-only filter for some major revision.

There, I feel better now.

Current Mood: busy

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[the Fanfic Crossover That Ate My Brain]
It's still eating my brain. The original entry has been updated to include Phase (Lord help me) Six.

Current Mood: crazy

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notes on "Manhunt"
Notes on the due South episode "Manhunt".
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Current Mood: cheerful

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notes on "Free Willie"
Apparently I need to watch "Slings And Arrows", as it stars Paul Gross.

Notes on the due South episode "Free Willie".

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Current Mood: cheerful

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notes on "The Pilot"
I recently bought all 4 seasons of due South on DVD. Because I am such a total dorky fangrrl, I'm going to be posting my notes on each episde as I watch them. Mostly these will consist of a. what songs are played as background to what scenes and b. quotes, plus as much recap as I can keep up with. My notes are in italics.

Episode 1.1: "Pilot".

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Current Mood: nostalgic

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[fun with the OTP generator]
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Current Mood: lazy

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For the oc_speedfic challenge "daybreak".

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In memory of TSW, 1961-November 31, 2006...possessor of green thumbs, rescuer of feral cats, good friend.

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[harry potter fic]
For those of you just joining us: I inadvertently challenged myself to write this fic over in fanficrants. It will almost certainly suck.

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Current Mood: silly

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[Day One]
My update.

Starting word count: 0
Added today: 284

Snippet:

It's not until the third day that Martiene finds the door. The first day is for the Company and the second day is for the show, as it's been for time out of mind. Michael's voice in her head, precise, laconic: "Unlock the doors. Turn on the worklights. Check in with the Net for your assignments. Don't stop for coffee--that means you, Kubera. When we want you to have an innovation, we'll let you know."

Current Mood: creative

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