In which I am even more incoherent than usual...

[jadesfire]

Since a list of interesting stuff wot I saw does not an update make, and since my brain is doing a fine hamster-in-a-wheel impression, I thought I'd attempt a post that isn't just the random contents of my head.

Okay. So that's a lie. This is the random contents of my head, but hey, a list makes it less random. Right?

#1. It was all kinds of awesome meeting people at the weekend, even if Oxford did its best to soak us to the skin. fan_eunice is just as lovely in person as online, and just as huggy, which is all good. I also got to meet taraljc, pipsqueaky and absolutedestiny as well as Tara's friend from Keble College. One native per tourist is probably about right ;) Anyway, we had lovely tea/lunch/scones at the Nosebag, followed by a slightly damp tour of the city. I love meeting fan-folks, because even if you haven't a clue what people are talking about - I spent large chunks of the anime part of the conversation nodding and smiling and wondering if I could learn to speak in tongues too - it's still so cool to see people who are so passionate about, well. Everything really. It was a lovely way to spend a damp Saturday afternoon and I highly recommend it.

#2. Honestly, I despair of myself sometimes. I have no writing discipline at all. If I can catch myself when I've got enthusiasm for something, then I'm fine, and it carries me through the sloggy parts of writing. Unfortunately, my story enthusiasm for NaNo peaked about 2 weeks ago, leaving me not really knowing where to start. I'm re-reading my research material and trying to work out the nitty-gritty bits, but I keep getting hijacked by pirates and other fic that I want to write, not to mention the story I've promised fajrdrako and desperately want to finish, and LFWS Round 2. It's all a bit of a mush in my head right now, which wasn't helped by a pretty bad mental-health day yesterday.

I might just have to accept that when it comes to writing, I'm a sprinter not a marathon runner, and I need to write my NaNo like that. I have a world, I have a character, I have a couple of plot points that I think will take me halfway through the novel. What happens after that, I haven't a clue, but no doubt it will involve great heroics, derring do and the mystery, revealed! Hopefully.

#3. My current fic writing plans are:

- Finish LFWS story. Well. Start it and finish it - it's got a 500 word limit, so I just need a macguffin and I'm sorted. That should get done today.
- Write first NaNo scene. Assuming the above goes well, this should also get done today.
- Add next scene to Dragon!fic. I'd like to have the whole thing finished by the end of the week, ideally.
- Prod next pirate!AU fic. Started.
- Resist urge to write pirate!AU for every fandom I'm familiar with. *resists*

What I really need is a proper WIP folder somewhere so that I can find things when I want to work on them instead of starting from scratch each time.

And while we're talking about fic, I haven't done a proper fic list for a while, so I'm going to lump August, September and October together. It won't actually be that much more than just an October list, I don't think, since the Big Bang burnt me out a little and I prodded at words rather than actually writing for most of August and September. Anyway, just warning you of more spam coming to a journal near you soon.

Other than that, my life is nicely dull at the moment. We're trying to pick a destination for our January holiday (anyone ever been to Morocco?), I start choir rehearsals this week for the Carol Service in December (it's held in the Divinity School which is always a wonderful experience), I'm on the cake rota this week (*rubs hands together* NOM!) and work continues well. Oh, and I'm going on a "Podcasting for Education" course tomorrow that I'm really looking forward to. It's all good, really.

How's everyone else?

Comments

[hllangel]

With NaNo, all it takes is the first word.

I've found that "The" makes a good one. :P

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*g* I do know what my first scene is about and how it goes. I just... It has to reach a sort of critical mass in my head before I can get it on the page. Because I write in an entirely linear fashion, I *have* to get the first bit right for the rest to work, so I need to be sure.

But I'll bear "the" in mind... ;P

[hllangel]

I'm incredibly floored by my first two days. Here's hoping I can keep it up.

(And then my next Tardis_BigBang story won't be difficult to get out at ALL)

[naye]

Meeting fan people in person is awesome! Sounds like you've got quite a bunch over there, too, which is always fun.

Good luck with the NaNo! And if you're looking for somewhere to travel, Japan is awfully pretty, even in January. And you'd have many willing guides to show you around Kyoto! *g*

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Starting a WIP folder or getting everything up on goggle docs or something can be a great help.

This week's LFWS was HARD- I like OCs, but creating them and having the h/c and everything in <500 words? very hard. For me anyway

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*G* There's a few people around in the UK, but it was very cool meeting people from the States as well.

We'll bear Japan in mind ;) But I think we're looking for somewhere cheap and sunny. Winter in the UK is so grim.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think it's going to have to be something liek google docs, so that I can get them at any of the various computers I use. I hate typing in it, but it's better than having to keep starting over.

I have an idea for this week's, I'm just not sure if it'll work. I'm on the late shift, so am going to spend a couple of hours figuring it out! You're right about it being hard though - trying to build a whole character *and* tell an H/C story in 500 words? Sheesh.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

With google docs once you open something via it you can acess it anytime, so email all the WIPs to yourself and then when, in the gmail, shows you the way to open it it'll have html, download and open as a google document (usually the first time it'll say it encountered a problem, then just click on the main 'google doc' screen in the top corner and it'll show what you were trying to open)

I had 5 or 6 versions of mine before I got it *right* or at least *rightish*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I prefer to go straight to Google docs and type in there. or rather, I don't, but at least that way I only end up with one version of what I want. Of course, at the moment, all of the documents only exist in my head, so I'll probably be starting on paper anyway.

Yeah. I wrote one that *should* have worked but just...didn't. I have another idea that might work and after that I'm getting desperate! *headdesk*

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oh- I thought you had them in files somewhere. Just typing works too! :)

Remember you always have your skips!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*g* Just writing tends to work best for me, for some reason - my stories go a lot better when I start them on paper then move to typing once the ideas are flowing. It's annoying but I can't seem to get round it. We'll see what happens...

*wails* But that feels like cheating! Especially when it's a challenge I feel I *should* be up to. Something will come to me, I'm sure. *prods brain* Maybe if I shake my head hard enough, inspiration will fall out... ;D

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

if a systems works for you- GO FOR IT!

*offers donuts to your muse*

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Yay! More pirate!fic! :D

What I really need is a proper WIP folder somewhere so that I can find things when I want to work on them instead of starting from scratch each time.

You could always follow along in the very sane and complication-free greyias method of WIPs. I usually wind up starting in Notepad (using asterisks to indicate italics), just writing stuff out until it becomes something resembling a story. Then to save it, if I'm away from my computer at home I shall copy and paste it into a draft on gmail. And then Google Docs. Then I'll save a copy to Word and e-mail that in a separate e-mail. If I have a thumb drive on me, I'll also save to a thumb drive... you can never be too careful.

Then when I get home, I'll paste the new stuff into the previous day's file, and save it as a new draft with a previous date. Then I can resume writing, safe in the knowledge that I have not lost anything, and I can go find whatever phrase I threw away yesterday in favor of what I've written today...

...then by the end of the week I have to move my seven different files into a folder labeled "Old Drafts" never to be looked at again, unless in a fit of panic I need to find some small bit of dialogue or narrative gem that I deleted.

See? Perfectly sane and not complicated at all.

How's everyone else?

It's Monday morning and I have done battle with a color printer for about two hours straight... I'm sore and under caffeinated.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*flails* Your icon!!!! Well, now I've got to write it, haven't I? Maybe I can get pirates into my NaNo...

...No, that's as clear as...er...mud... ;) I think I shall stick with my current method of writing a list of all the things I *want* to write but otherwise keeping them in my head until I'm ready to *actually* write. It means my head is very full, but I almost never go back to an abandoned draft anyway - I'm an 'all or nothing' kind of writer, and need the momentum to get things done. Which is a pain in the neck, but it doesnt' really work any other way :S

Oh noes! Did you win?

[greyias.livejournal.com]

I think I shall stick with my current method

Probably a wise choice. The greyias method has been known to cause the occasional psychotic episode due to it's relative... simplicity. It's sort of like staring into heart of the Tardis... not generally recommended for most folks.

Oh noes! Did you win?

Yes! I am bloody, bruised, dusty, and exhausted... but I emerged victorious. Although there was one point where I was coming up with a theory that color printers are coming closer and closer to sentience, and their first order of business is to overthrow their human overlords.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*giggle* It makes my method sound positively Zen, although given I hold the contents in my mess of a brain, I'm not sure it's more organised...

I think you're right about the printers. Computers already ask me if I'm sure I want to do things. It's only a matter of time before one of them says "I can't let you do that - it's for your own good". Then we really are doomed...

[greyias.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it's more organised...

Bah! Organization is just a concept engineered by the man to try and trap our free-thinking and put it into tiny little, neatly labeled boxes that they can rifle through anytime. Viva la chaos!

It's only a matter of time before one of them says "I can't let you do that - it's for your own good".

Bahahaha! The real question is which O/S asks you to do that. If it's Vista, this wouldn't come as much of a surprise (although lurking intelligence would be called into question.) If it were a Mac, then I would know that Steve Jobs has just decided that this way is more efficient (because user input is only helpful when it doesn't contradict his VISION ).If it were Linux... it's probably asking me the question in Mandarin because I still haven't figured out how to turn off that stupid SCIM hotkey.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*helpless laughter* Oh yes, so true. My mother is currently doing battle with Vista (it's winning) - she's not a confident PC user, but it's driving even her up the wall.

Linux wouldn't ask you. Linux would let you do it then laugh at you later.

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Hahaha...

I have a growing list of delicious'd bookmarks on how to deal with Vista's... fun quirks. As insane as it makes me sometime, I actually do like some aspects of the O/S better than XP. Probably because it's much shinier.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to work out how to add programmes to my Linux machine, so there's no way I'm criticising someone else's computer. I'm going to courses and everything.

OTOH, my mother's Vista won't install the iTunes she needs, which means it won't run her iPod properly, which means *we're* having to run her iPod so yeah. not much love for Vista's...fun quirks...from this end :S

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Your Linux-fu is probably much stronger than mine. I'm still afraid to save files to it in case it decides it doesn't like me and refuses to boot up.

And I should probably also add that I had a computer guru touch my Vista machine the first weekend I had it, which managed to nip most of the "fun quirks" in the bud. I do remember having iTunes/iPod troubles on the previous laptop after upgrading to Vista. I think I wound up using Winamp as a workaround.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

it's not spamming - it's chatting! I like chatting :D

Winamp, eh? We'll have to try that next time we're down there... It'd just be nice if she could upload stuff for herself, instead of waiting for us to drive 60 miles to do it for her!

NaNo

[lemon-tree-7.livejournal.com]

Well, my first word for NaNo on Saturday morning was "Ohmygod", since that was how I felt.

This was followed by my heroine's family all being slaughtered (well, not really, it was an illusion) and the heroine herself being kidnapped by the shape-shifting fog-monster! I really had no idea this was going to happen.

I'm just playing and being really, really silly. It's fun!
So, yay for great heroics, derring do and the mystery, revealed .

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Yay, chatting! \o/

Winamp, eh?

Yep! It's not quite as... drag and drop as iTunes though. Of course, I really don't like the iTunes interface that much, so I routinely look for ways to circumvent it. Here's a list of iPod managers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_managers) that might also work.

[hellenebright.livejournal.com]

Tell her to uninstall everything that looks like iTunes and make a fresh download. Should work fine. Oh, and turn off backup/restore while she's deleting.