I'm surprisingly chatty for a zombie

[jadesfire]

braaaaaaaaaaaainzzzzzz

*ahem*

I actually slept last night, so my body was supremely unimpressed when I had to get out of bed this morning because it wants more, and it wants more now. I'm keeping it at bay with coffee* and work, but it may be a losing battle.

...I'm sure there was meant to be actual content to this post....um...oh yes.

There are mornings when io9.com saves my sanity. A quick skim this morning produced 5 Things I Learned About Women From the James Bond Books, Space Porn, David Tennant In Glasses, An Article About Fibre Optic Sponges That I Lack The Brain Power To Get Through But Looks Intriguing. Also, the new Watchmen trailer, that makes me cautiously optimistic about the film (I can live without the squid, I promise, just make it a good film, okay?)

I've got a long list of stories I want to write, as usual, as well as some non-ficly stuff. There's the Audacity tips that I picked up the other week, a meta on writing action (why is there not more of this? I mean, you don't have to Google very hard to get lots of guides to writing sex scenes - why is there no action meta?), and something that has the working title "In Defence of Gen" that's been brewing for a while now. That last one might not get written, because I'm struggling to find a way to put it that doesn't sound either terribly "entitled" or horribly snide. Still, it'd be good to get it off my chest...

I'm going to be doing a proper promo to sga_noticeboard later (so that the US is actually awake when I post) but the last of the artword stories has gone up, and it's the one that I started! Breathe turned out in a direction I could not have predicted, and the art for it is just...guh. Go read and see for yourselves.

Oh, and while I think of it, I'm not doing a "do you want a holiday card" post this year, for the simple reason that I'm going on holiday a few weeks after Christmas, and will send postcards from Morocco to anyone who wants them. I'll put a post up nearer the time. I am, however, contemplating the Holiday Wishes meme, if only because I'd like to see if there's anything I can do for you guys :)

Oh, and also, can I recommend as strongly as possible two new podfics: Rebuilding Babel is one of my all-time favourite Atlantis stories (seriously - language and telepathy and Rodney-centric. I don't think I have a button that this story doesn't push) and the reading is great. For something lighter and shorter, Torture Most Bizarre and Terrible is wonderfully silly.

That's so not everything, but it's all for now. I'm off to do things to invoices, contemplate my Last Fic Writer Standing entry, back up my LJ and mull over some other stories. If there's anyone out there who wanted to do the team challenge at sga_flashfic but lacked a writing partner, I have some braincells you can use if you want...

*ETA: Have switched to diet pepsi. No noticeable improvement, but I didn't have to get out of my chair to go get it, which is definitely a plus.

ETA2 Son of ETA: Since I either want to eat or buy everything in the whole world right now, I used my usual distraction technique of raiding the stationery cupboard instead. I can't be the only one who gets bafflingly excited by stationery catalogues, right? Or who has to be physically dragged out of Staples? Today, I netted the pencils I wanted, a thinline permanent black marker (useful for writing REALLY IMPORTANT MESSAGES on things), a new post-it pad because I use too many of the damn things, some small index cards that I'm sure I'll think of something to do with, and the weirdest pen in the world. Seriously. It looks like a fountain pen, but it's actually a highlighter, then it has a sort of sliding panel around the body of the pen, so that you can get at a supply of those little page marker stickies - you know the sort? I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it's SO COOL. *drools*

...it's possible that I need to get out more...

Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Ooh, somebody left one of those pens on my desk last week! I thought it was some kind of diabetic testing pen for a minute and wouldn't touch it, but then I realized medical supplies do not usually have the word "Post It" on the side. :D I had no use for it, as I need the biggest, gaudiest sticky notes on earth to get people's attention, but it was still quite cool.

I also love fancy paper and office supply stores. There's just something about the promise of all that organization that's thrilling. I dragged my son along last week on a trip to buy paper, and was waxing rhapsodic about the various weights of card stock to him. Finally he said, "You do realize how weird this is, right?"

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think someone must have left it in the library - if it doesn't get claimed, it ends up in the supply cupboard. Score. It'd be useful if I was studying. Which I'm not. But, you know. I could be.

*giggle* But it's sooo much fun. Because pens are pretty! My personal weakness is for folders, since I'm actually banned from buying any more notebooks...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

hmmm, I liked where you started the SGA story, and the next person's but then it stole the plot of an episode of "red dwarf" which is kind of strange. But the art's amazing!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* I quite liked the surrealness. And the art is just...guh. I'm seriously thinking of making it my desktop picture. *stares*

[aeshna_uk]

Stationery porn: oh, there are more of us than you might think! Notepads are my weakness - I have more of those than I will EVER physically need!

I have one of those pens - there was a lab suppliers' come-and-buy-our-stuff day a couple of years ago and at the end of the session me and the lab tech went around hoovering up all the freebie tat they didn't want to cart back with them. Got a good handful of those. Have shifted job twice since then, but I'm still hanging onto one of 'em. :)

I'm with you on the defence of gen thing. It's interesting that when I tell folks I write gen, they often tend to automatically assume that I'm one of those folks who finds the idea of smut icky and so writes heavy-duty emotionally-pornographic H/C instead. The idea that I'm happy writing full-on smut (which I am) but actually prefer to tell stories that aren't primarily based around relationships seems to be almost more problematic for them - I'm not in any sort of shippy denial, I just like gen! And worse - I like OCs! ;) For a lot of folks, it seems that the character inter-relationships are more important than absolutely anything else, while for me it's the concept and the background world that really drives the bunnies. The characters are the means through which we explore that fictional world.

Oh well, it's just as well I've never been a feedback chaser.... ;)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

In my last job, my line manager and I were briefly allowed to place the stationery orders for the library. It took us nearly two hours and much giggling, but I got a stack of bright pink post-its out of the deal, so I was very happy :)

I think part of my problem with Gen writing is that I *am* interested first of all in the inter-character relationships although that could just be because my plotting sucks - I guess ideally, the character and the world shed light on each other. But if you want to explore that through Gen rather than heavy slash or het, there seems to be an assumption that you're missing out or ignoring something that everyone else can see.

I've read some soul-searing Gen (more in Torchwood rather than SGA, I have to say, but when slash is canon, I think it skews things), and too much "this is how they get together" fic to be able to tell whether stories are good anymore. I think my fundamental problem is this assumption that Gen is somehow a second-class type of fanfic, which is rarely said but often implied. It's not like there's more bad Gen than bad slash...

The one advantage is that you often get more thoughtful feedback on gen stories. I love feedback - I wouldn't make stories public if I wasn't interested to see what people thought of them - but one sentence saying *why* the person liked it (or didn't) is worth so much more to me than hundreds of undefined squees (defined squees are good, and not everything I write is worth serious comment). Which is sad and probably unreasonable of me, but there you go. Unfortunately the adage "The Internet Is For Porn" seems to be especially true of fanfic, and that's what people still get most excited about.

Damn I need to write this meta, because I also want to talk about how people seem to feel the *need* to write slash when they're writing great Gen, but this comment is already long enough and my husband is wondering where I've got to...

The internet is probably a big enough world for all of us, I'd just like the Gen writers to be treated like full citizens too :)

[aeshna_uk]

I'm in Pern fandom - hell, I started my fanwriting there some 16 years back - where the rule was always that you borrow the world but create your own characters to write about within it, and back when I got into things it was all paper zines, which meant no real reaction past the editing stage... which pretty much entirely explains my approach to fanwriting, OCs and feedback!

I guess ideally, the character and the world shed light on each other

Yes. It's just the focus that may shift from one story to another, as may the character viewpoint. It's a fluid relationship and you just have to tread that line between self-indulgent navel-gazing on the one side and over-blown descriptive exposition on the other! :)

because I also want to talk about how people seem to feel the *need* to write slash when they're writing great Gen

I think this is the crux of it. There is a curious – and rather loud – fannish culture out there where a lot of folks do have this huge emotional investment in particular pairings (het as well as slash, though yes, slash seems to be the main aspect that gets fixated on) and even when watching the canon, it's all they can pay attention to. There are a lot of people who just can't understand how anyone can NOT see canon through a shippy filter. Heck, I seem to recall someone once asking if it was even possible to write fanfic without having an OTP, which was quite possibly the oddest question I've ever heard. And then there is that strange belief in some sections that gen is written by people who are prudes and/or anti-slash. That they just haven't "seen the light" yet. The idea that someone might be quite happy with writing pairings but simply chooses not to much of the time seems curiously disturbing for some.

So what you will sometimes see are folks who have what are basically great gen ideas but who feel obliged to shoehorn in heavy-duty relationships because it's "expected". It's "the done thing". It's what they "should" write to please people... or at least those people who shout the loudest in comments. This can be particularly painful in WiPs where the writer tries to work in suggestions from comments along the way – I've seen too many stories start strongly and end as bland lowest common denominator mush. It's almost an odd sort of training, rewarding compliance with feedback (although I will say that it can cut both ways – I have seen a writer demand certain amounts of feedback before continuing WiPs, but that person was a noted feedback whore who had some 8 sockpuppets (that we tracked), most of which were "first time author, please tell me where I'm going wrong!!!"). But there's a huge difference between writing what you want to write and writing what you think other people want to read. There comes a point where it isn't really your story. But if you're judging success as a writer in number of comments, then going with the flow may seem to be the way to happiness.

It's nothing new. The internet just makes it a hell of a lot easier.

(disclaimer: and there are also many fine shippy folks who are happy to encourage - or at least ignore - diversity and have no inclination to try to force others to see the world their way :))

And on the subject of feedback: my tagline there has always been "I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn." ;) Feedback is lovely, feedback is great, but it's not why I write and it's not why I post. I don't really get the idea that the desire for feedback is why stories are posted - if you've created something you're pleased with, why shouldn't you want to show it off? My tastes don't generally run to the usual (that gen thing again!) but I've always figured that if I like it, then someone else probably will, whether they decide to tell me or not. I'm very happy if they do (and yes, considered feedback is nicer than squees), but it's not essential. If nothing else, this means I'm not thinking about audience reaction as I write and can just get on with exorcising the bunny! :)

I'd just like the Gen writers to be treated like full citizens too

Amen to that! :)

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

but one sentence saying *why* the person liked it (or didn't) is worth so much more to me than hundreds of undefined squees (defined squees are good, and not everything I write is worth serious comment). Which is sad and probably unreasonable of me, but there you go.

I feel the same way, and I don't think it's sad. For me, comments with content are more valuable because there are so many reasons why a person might "squee" over a story, and a lot of them don't have much to do with my writing. The commenter might have a thing for puppies, or they might be a huge fan of a character or a pairing that happened to make it into my story, and that predisposes them to liking the story. They may not care whether it's well-written, whereas my goal is more to write things well than to thrill a whole lot of people. Not that I'm not happy that I made them happy! But if someone invests the time and effort to be specific, that helps me in my goal a lot more. And it's just more gratifying.


(Also - I'd love to read your defense of Gen. Because of the tiny circles I run in, I rarely come across the idea that Gen is inferior, but it's an interesting question and one I doubt I would think you snide about. *g*)

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Ooh, somebody left one of those pens on my desk last week! I thought it was some kind of diabetic testing pen for a minute and wouldn't touch it, but then I realized medical supplies do not usually have the word "Post It" on the side. :D I had no use for it, as I need the biggest, gaudiest sticky notes on earth to get people's attention, but it was still quite cool.

I also love fancy paper and office supply stores. There's just something about the promise of all that organization that's thrilling. I dragged my son along last week on a trip to buy paper, and was waxing rhapsodic about the various weights of card stock to him. Finally he said, "You do realize how weird this is, right?"

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think someone must have left it in the library - if it doesn't get claimed, it ends up in the supply cupboard. Score. It'd be useful if I was studying. Which I'm not. But, you know. I could be.

*giggle* But it's sooo much fun. Because pens are pretty! My personal weakness is for folders, since I'm actually banned from buying any more notebooks...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

hmmm, I liked where you started the SGA story, and the next person's but then it stole the plot of an episode of "red dwarf" which is kind of strange. But the art's amazing!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* I quite liked the surrealness. And the art is just...guh. I'm seriously thinking of making it my desktop picture. *stares*

[aeshna_uk]

Stationery porn: oh, there are more of us than you might think! Notepads are my weakness - I have more of those than I will EVER physically need!

I have one of those pens - there was a lab suppliers' come-and-buy-our-stuff day a couple of years ago and at the end of the session me and the lab tech went around hoovering up all the freebie tat they didn't want to cart back with them. Got a good handful of those. Have shifted job twice since then, but I'm still hanging onto one of 'em. :)

I'm with you on the defence of gen thing. It's interesting that when I tell folks I write gen, they often tend to automatically assume that I'm one of those folks who finds the idea of smut icky and so writes heavy-duty emotionally-pornographic H/C instead. The idea that I'm happy writing full-on smut (which I am) but actually prefer to tell stories that aren't primarily based around relationships seems to be almost more problematic for them - I'm not in any sort of shippy denial, I just like gen! And worse - I like OCs! ;) For a lot of folks, it seems that the character inter-relationships are more important than absolutely anything else, while for me it's the concept and the background world that really drives the bunnies. The characters are the means through which we explore that fictional world.

Oh well, it's just as well I've never been a feedback chaser.... ;)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

In my last job, my line manager and I were briefly allowed to place the stationery orders for the library. It took us nearly two hours and much giggling, but I got a stack of bright pink post-its out of the deal, so I was very happy :)

I think part of my problem with Gen writing is that I *am* interested first of all in the inter-character relationships although that could just be because my plotting sucks - I guess ideally, the character and the world shed light on each other. But if you want to explore that through Gen rather than heavy slash or het, there seems to be an assumption that you're missing out or ignoring something that everyone else can see.

I've read some soul-searing Gen (more in Torchwood rather than SGA, I have to say, but when slash is canon, I think it skews things), and too much "this is how they get together" fic to be able to tell whether stories are good anymore. I think my fundamental problem is this assumption that Gen is somehow a second-class type of fanfic, which is rarely said but often implied. It's not like there's more bad Gen than bad slash...

The one advantage is that you often get more thoughtful feedback on gen stories. I love feedback - I wouldn't make stories public if I wasn't interested to see what people thought of them - but one sentence saying *why* the person liked it (or didn't) is worth so much more to me than hundreds of undefined squees (defined squees are good, and not everything I write is worth serious comment). Which is sad and probably unreasonable of me, but there you go. Unfortunately the adage "The Internet Is For Porn" seems to be especially true of fanfic, and that's what people still get most excited about.

Damn I need to write this meta, because I also want to talk about how people seem to feel the *need* to write slash when they're writing great Gen, but this comment is already long enough and my husband is wondering where I've got to...

The internet is probably a big enough world for all of us, I'd just like the Gen writers to be treated like full citizens too :)

[aeshna_uk]

I'm in Pern fandom - hell, I started my fanwriting there some 16 years back - where the rule was always that you borrow the world but create your own characters to write about within it, and back when I got into things it was all paper zines, which meant no real reaction past the editing stage... which pretty much entirely explains my approach to fanwriting, OCs and feedback!

I guess ideally, the character and the world shed light on each other

Yes. It's just the focus that may shift from one story to another, as may the character viewpoint. It's a fluid relationship and you just have to tread that line between self-indulgent navel-gazing on the one side and over-blown descriptive exposition on the other! :)

because I also want to talk about how people seem to feel the *need* to write slash when they're writing great Gen

I think this is the crux of it. There is a curious – and rather loud – fannish culture out there where a lot of folks do have this huge emotional investment in particular pairings (het as well as slash, though yes, slash seems to be the main aspect that gets fixated on) and even when watching the canon, it's all they can pay attention to. There are a lot of people who just can't understand how anyone can NOT see canon through a shippy filter. Heck, I seem to recall someone once asking if it was even possible to write fanfic without having an OTP, which was quite possibly the oddest question I've ever heard. And then there is that strange belief in some sections that gen is written by people who are prudes and/or anti-slash. That they just haven't "seen the light" yet. The idea that someone might be quite happy with writing pairings but simply chooses not to much of the time seems curiously disturbing for some.

So what you will sometimes see are folks who have what are basically great gen ideas but who feel obliged to shoehorn in heavy-duty relationships because it's "expected". It's "the done thing". It's what they "should" write to please people... or at least those people who shout the loudest in comments. This can be particularly painful in WiPs where the writer tries to work in suggestions from comments along the way – I've seen too many stories start strongly and end as bland lowest common denominator mush. It's almost an odd sort of training, rewarding compliance with feedback (although I will say that it can cut both ways – I have seen a writer demand certain amounts of feedback before continuing WiPs, but that person was a noted feedback whore who had some 8 sockpuppets (that we tracked), most of which were "first time author, please tell me where I'm going wrong!!!"). But there's a huge difference between writing what you want to write and writing what you think other people want to read. There comes a point where it isn't really your story. But if you're judging success as a writer in number of comments, then going with the flow may seem to be the way to happiness.

It's nothing new. The internet just makes it a hell of a lot easier.

(disclaimer: and there are also many fine shippy folks who are happy to encourage - or at least ignore - diversity and have no inclination to try to force others to see the world their way :))

And on the subject of feedback: my tagline there has always been "I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn." ;) Feedback is lovely, feedback is great, but it's not why I write and it's not why I post. I don't really get the idea that the desire for feedback is why stories are posted - if you've created something you're pleased with, why shouldn't you want to show it off? My tastes don't generally run to the usual (that gen thing again!) but I've always figured that if I like it, then someone else probably will, whether they decide to tell me or not. I'm very happy if they do (and yes, considered feedback is nicer than squees), but it's not essential. If nothing else, this means I'm not thinking about audience reaction as I write and can just get on with exorcising the bunny! :)

I'd just like the Gen writers to be treated like full citizens too

Amen to that! :)

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

but one sentence saying *why* the person liked it (or didn't) is worth so much more to me than hundreds of undefined squees (defined squees are good, and not everything I write is worth serious comment). Which is sad and probably unreasonable of me, but there you go.

I feel the same way, and I don't think it's sad. For me, comments with content are more valuable because there are so many reasons why a person might "squee" over a story, and a lot of them don't have much to do with my writing. The commenter might have a thing for puppies, or they might be a huge fan of a character or a pairing that happened to make it into my story, and that predisposes them to liking the story. They may not care whether it's well-written, whereas my goal is more to write things well than to thrill a whole lot of people. Not that I'm not happy that I made them happy! But if someone invests the time and effort to be specific, that helps me in my goal a lot more. And it's just more gratifying.


(Also - I'd love to read your defense of Gen. Because of the tiny circles I run in, I rarely come across the idea that Gen is inferior, but it's an interesting question and one I doubt I would think you snide about. *g*)