The artist is IN
May. 6th, 2020 03:52 pmThe SWG's Block Party prompt for Monday was: "Take us behind the scenes of one of your own fanworks!" I'm taking a leaf out of Indy's, Narya's and Lilith's book and taking questions from my gentle readers, i.e., you (possibly?).
So! What would you like to know from behind the scenes? Ask me about old stuff, new stuff, stuff I may or may not be working on, stuff I want to write or draw, stuff I probably won't write or draw, whatever. Ask me about writing, my writing process, art, inspiration or whatever else you're curious about. Ask as many questions as you like!
In case you need a handy overview, most of my fic is here and most of my Tolkien art is here.
So! What would you like to know from behind the scenes? Ask me about old stuff, new stuff, stuff I may or may not be working on, stuff I want to write or draw, stuff I probably won't write or draw, whatever. Ask me about writing, my writing process, art, inspiration or whatever else you're curious about. Ask as many questions as you like!
In case you need a handy overview, most of my fic is here and most of my Tolkien art is here.
B2MeM is imminent...
Feb. 28th, 2019 07:35 pm... and I've admired the super-organised (neatly handwritten or printed! in a nice folder/kit! like these lovely kits you see on studyblr!) displays of other people's Bingo preparations. They're making me feel sadly lazy and inadequate. (Let's not even mention that I'm no longer entirely certain that I remember what cards I've claimed! I hope I'm not forgetting anything major that I typed into that Google document and then deleted from memory.) I've just got a lazy digital folder on my computer in which I've saved the cards (a week after claiming them, which is why I don't remember for certain whether they're all the ones I claimed >_>) and the stamps, and also a document. The document contains a table in which I've listed all prompts by Bingo number and card, and tentatively wrote down an idea if I already had one. It's not even in Excel! It's a plain dumb Word (well LibreOffice Writer, same difference) document. That is because I am (despite only using digital media for this) not actually tech savvy. I'm just lazy.
Still, in case anyone else is intimidated by the neat and efficient kits, here is Lyra's Lazy B2MeM Track-keeping Method (which is more or less an adapted version of Lyra's Lazy Thesis Writing Method). Maybe it'll help someone who is new to this and knows they won't manage to prepare (let alone maintain) a neat analogue folder...
( Pics under the cut )
It will be interesting to see whether I'll manage to actually participate much at all. The school year is hotting up and we all got additional duties on top of our regular teaching, due to stupid ~quality management~ stuff. I've got to help knit a new inclusion/diversity concept (basically, What are we already doing at our school to help students with special needs? What else do we need to do? What can we do better? And Who is to blame? Which is exactly the job you'd assign to a rookie with half a year of experience at this particular school AND with teaching in general, haha. I'm part of a team so I don't have to do it all by myself, but it's still... challenging. Plus working on a different group for the educational concept, which I'm also totally predestined to help develop... not). Just regular teaching is challenging enough! And the next holidays are still over a month away! ;_;
But that's a different ramble for a different post (that probably won't happen)...
Still, in case anyone else is intimidated by the neat and efficient kits, here is Lyra's Lazy B2MeM Track-keeping Method (which is more or less an adapted version of Lyra's Lazy Thesis Writing Method). Maybe it'll help someone who is new to this and knows they won't manage to prepare (let alone maintain) a neat analogue folder...
( Pics under the cut )
It will be interesting to see whether I'll manage to actually participate much at all. The school year is hotting up and we all got additional duties on top of our regular teaching, due to stupid ~quality management~ stuff. I've got to help knit a new inclusion/diversity concept (basically, What are we already doing at our school to help students with special needs? What else do we need to do? What can we do better? And Who is to blame? Which is exactly the job you'd assign to a rookie with half a year of experience at this particular school AND with teaching in general, haha. I'm part of a team so I don't have to do it all by myself, but it's still... challenging. Plus working on a different group for the educational concept, which I'm also totally predestined to help develop... not). Just regular teaching is challenging enough! And the next holidays are still over a month away! ;_;
But that's a different ramble for a different post (that probably won't happen)...
More Fanfic Questions
Feb. 3rd, 2019 08:14 pmMy snow photos all turned out crappy because I forgot to adjust the camera's sensitivity to light (is that the right word? w/e). So instead of a self-indulgent picspam, have a self-indulgent Ask Meme! Stolen this from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
independence1776.
1. What made you start writing fanfic?
2. Which of your own fanfics have you reread the most?
3. Describe the differences between your first fanfic and your most recent fanfic.
4. Do you think your style has changed over time? How so?
5. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?
6. Name three stories you found easy to write.
7. Name three stories you found difficult to write.
8. What’s your ratio of hits to kudos?
9. What do your fic bookmarks say about you?
10. What’s a theme that keeps coming up in your writing?
11. What kind of relationships are you most interested in writing?
12. For E-rated fic, what are some things your characters keep doing?
13. Name three favorite characters to write.
14. You’re applying for the fanfic writer of the year award. What five fanfics do you put in your portfolio?
15. Question of your choice!
Ask one or several in the comments and I'll answer!
independence1776.1. What made you start writing fanfic?
2. Which of your own fanfics have you reread the most?
3. Describe the differences between your first fanfic and your most recent fanfic.
4. Do you think your style has changed over time? How so?
5. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?
6. Name three stories you found easy to write.
7. Name three stories you found difficult to write.
8. What’s your ratio of hits to kudos?
9. What do your fic bookmarks say about you?
10. What’s a theme that keeps coming up in your writing?
11. What kind of relationships are you most interested in writing?
12. For E-rated fic, what are some things your characters keep doing?
13. Name three favorite characters to write.
14. You’re applying for the fanfic writer of the year award. What five fanfics do you put in your portfolio?
15. Question of your choice!
Ask one or several in the comments and I'll answer!
Wait, where are my holidays gone?
Oct. 28th, 2018 08:02 pmIt's back to school tomorrow. I had two weeks of fall break (much needed, I must shamefully confess) and they went by in the blink of an eye.
Well, not really. The first week was hot (!) and sunny and I got some necessary gardening done (not enough, but still). The second week was cool, wet and autumnal, which was a pity as far as the gardening is concerned, but also very necessary - especially the wet part. Due to the extremely dry spring and summer and - so far - autumn, most bodies of water have lost a lot of, well, water. Even the local reservoirs are down to 29% of their proper level, which is lower even than the lowest recorded level from back in the late 70s. Back then, the spire of the church of the village at the bottom of the reservoir was visible again, but by now, it apparently has broken down. The Rhine is so empty by now that gas is becoming (even) more expensive because it can no longer be transported by ship, and it's more expensive to use road tankers.
This year was so untypical that the figs on my little fig tree actually ripened (normally, I pick them hard small and green in October, and then boil them in syrup to make them edible). But at what price? :P
THEN, of course, I meant to write lots of LJ entries to catch up with Life, the Universe and Everything - the kids, stuff we did as a family, the house, and - most especially - the job. But early in the month I got hit by... what's the opposite of Writer's Block? Writer's Bug? Whatever it's called, I got it bad. And because I was afraid that it would abandon me again, I spent most of my spare time writing. It was like NaNoWriMo come early! I've produced 6 (!) new chapters for The Embalmer's Apprentice. I hope I'll finally be able to kill off the old king in the next (unwritten) chapter or the one after that, and then things get really exciting. *rubs hands* But of course, I should know better than to make predictions! I still remember the times when I thought it was going to be a short little 5-or so-chapter one-shot for Akallabêth in August 2009. *hollow laughter* Now it's at 24 (published) chapters and 174,654 words. When do stories ever behave as planned?
I won't be able to participate in the actual NaNoWriMo in November, so I'm glad I got at least this much done.
I'll write about my teaching experience and the rest of real life some other time. Probably. Back to school tomorrow, anyway. My students were very difficult in the last week before the holidays, and I hope that they could blow off some steam so we can all behave like civilised human beings in the class room again. Fingers crossed.
Well, not really. The first week was hot (!) and sunny and I got some necessary gardening done (not enough, but still). The second week was cool, wet and autumnal, which was a pity as far as the gardening is concerned, but also very necessary - especially the wet part. Due to the extremely dry spring and summer and - so far - autumn, most bodies of water have lost a lot of, well, water. Even the local reservoirs are down to 29% of their proper level, which is lower even than the lowest recorded level from back in the late 70s. Back then, the spire of the church of the village at the bottom of the reservoir was visible again, but by now, it apparently has broken down. The Rhine is so empty by now that gas is becoming (even) more expensive because it can no longer be transported by ship, and it's more expensive to use road tankers.
This year was so untypical that the figs on my little fig tree actually ripened (normally, I pick them hard small and green in October, and then boil them in syrup to make them edible). But at what price? :P
THEN, of course, I meant to write lots of LJ entries to catch up with Life, the Universe and Everything - the kids, stuff we did as a family, the house, and - most especially - the job. But early in the month I got hit by... what's the opposite of Writer's Block? Writer's Bug? Whatever it's called, I got it bad. And because I was afraid that it would abandon me again, I spent most of my spare time writing. It was like NaNoWriMo come early! I've produced 6 (!) new chapters for The Embalmer's Apprentice. I hope I'll finally be able to kill off the old king in the next (unwritten) chapter or the one after that, and then things get really exciting. *rubs hands* But of course, I should know better than to make predictions! I still remember the times when I thought it was going to be a short little 5-or so-chapter one-shot for Akallabêth in August 2009. *hollow laughter* Now it's at 24 (published) chapters and 174,654 words. When do stories ever behave as planned?
I won't be able to participate in the actual NaNoWriMo in November, so I'm glad I got at least this much done.
I'll write about my teaching experience and the rest of real life some other time. Probably. Back to school tomorrow, anyway. My students were very difficult in the last week before the holidays, and I hope that they could blow off some steam so we can all behave like civilised human beings in the class room again. Fingers crossed.
Irrelevant babble
Jun. 8th, 2017 11:50 pmSoooo I have no internet for a week and the world goes batshit. Again. I'll assume that the batshit didn't happen as a direct consequence of my offlinishness. I'll also assume that enough has been said about the batshit so I don't have to try and sum it up now.
Instead, I'll babble a bit about fannish matters.
Being without internet access, I was afraid that I'd miss the deadline for this month's SWG challenge. Finished the story (without access to my online sources, wah!), and today the internet came back so I managed to post it. Afterwards, I learned that the deadline has been postponed by two weeks (!!!) because so many people found it hard to meet it.
I should be relaxed and content but instead, I'm all fidgety and anxious. I mean, basically there are two options,
A) I got the challenge completely wrong and my response is useless and people will hate me and I'll get kicked out of the SWG (yes, I know it's not that kind of guild! Try to get my amygdala to understand that!). Half my f-list will kick me off theirs because I'm too stupid to belong there.
B) I just happened to be lucky and all is well.
(In all honesty, I chose Galadriel as my protagonist because you can basically throw every prompt at her and it'll work with her story somehow, right?)
I've decided against giving in to my panicked inner critic and rework the whole story because of an anecdote my husband likes to tell about his graduation exams in maths. It was a four-hour exam and he was done after two hours, so like any normal person, he was convinced that he had missed something important. So he triple-checked his responses and, indeed, he found an error pretty early on in his calculation, based on which all the rest of his response was wrong. Relieved, he reworked the whole thing and handed it in.
His grade was OK, albeit not as good as he'd hoped.
Ten years later, you can look into your exam papers, and Jörg was curious.
Next to the erroneous calculations that Jörg had crossed out, the teacher had scrawled "1+" (the best possible grade in Germany). Underneath the corrected calculations, the official grade of "2-" (between B and C) was accompanied by "too bad". Jörg had got it right the first time... and because he hadn't trusted his luck, had thrown away a perfect grade.
(On the other hand, he scored one in Latin because the exam text happened to be something he'd translated with a student he was tutoring a mere week before the exam. I can tell that story now because this was all a long time ago! As illustrated by the fact that he could choose Latin for his language exam. (I hear my old school recently added Chinese to the exam canon. O tempora, o mores. Not that there's anything wrong with Chinese, it just goes to show how the focus has changed!))
So I'm just not gonna touch it at this point and see what happens. It's only fanfic, right?
(Whom am I kidding. It's never "only fanfic". It's always a brainchild that's out in a potentially hostile world!)
- - -
Since it's now getting broadcast on German TV, I could use this chance to rant about everything that annoyed me about the ultimate season of Sherlock, but I'm not sure I should open that can of worms. Or should I? Do any of you want to? For the time being, let me just make fun of myself. There's definitely a LOT of beef to be had with that Sherlock season but the thing that bothers me most? ( Potential spoiler for Sherlock S4 )
Instead, I'll babble a bit about fannish matters.
Being without internet access, I was afraid that I'd miss the deadline for this month's SWG challenge. Finished the story (without access to my online sources, wah!), and today the internet came back so I managed to post it. Afterwards, I learned that the deadline has been postponed by two weeks (!!!) because so many people found it hard to meet it.
I should be relaxed and content but instead, I'm all fidgety and anxious. I mean, basically there are two options,
A) I got the challenge completely wrong and my response is useless and people will hate me and I'll get kicked out of the SWG (yes, I know it's not that kind of guild! Try to get my amygdala to understand that!). Half my f-list will kick me off theirs because I'm too stupid to belong there.
B) I just happened to be lucky and all is well.
(In all honesty, I chose Galadriel as my protagonist because you can basically throw every prompt at her and it'll work with her story somehow, right?)
I've decided against giving in to my panicked inner critic and rework the whole story because of an anecdote my husband likes to tell about his graduation exams in maths. It was a four-hour exam and he was done after two hours, so like any normal person, he was convinced that he had missed something important. So he triple-checked his responses and, indeed, he found an error pretty early on in his calculation, based on which all the rest of his response was wrong. Relieved, he reworked the whole thing and handed it in.
His grade was OK, albeit not as good as he'd hoped.
Ten years later, you can look into your exam papers, and Jörg was curious.
Next to the erroneous calculations that Jörg had crossed out, the teacher had scrawled "1+" (the best possible grade in Germany). Underneath the corrected calculations, the official grade of "2-" (between B and C) was accompanied by "too bad". Jörg had got it right the first time... and because he hadn't trusted his luck, had thrown away a perfect grade.
(On the other hand, he scored one in Latin because the exam text happened to be something he'd translated with a student he was tutoring a mere week before the exam. I can tell that story now because this was all a long time ago! As illustrated by the fact that he could choose Latin for his language exam. (I hear my old school recently added Chinese to the exam canon. O tempora, o mores. Not that there's anything wrong with Chinese, it just goes to show how the focus has changed!))
So I'm just not gonna touch it at this point and see what happens. It's only fanfic, right?
(Whom am I kidding. It's never "only fanfic". It's always a brainchild that's out in a potentially hostile world!)
- - -
Since it's now getting broadcast on German TV, I could use this chance to rant about everything that annoyed me about the ultimate season of Sherlock, but I'm not sure I should open that can of worms. Or should I? Do any of you want to? For the time being, let me just make fun of myself. There's definitely a LOT of beef to be had with that Sherlock season but the thing that bothers me most? ( Potential spoiler for Sherlock S4 )
CAPSLOCK TIEMS!
Nov. 16th, 2013 04:27 pmI.
I MEAN.
I JUST.
I AM WRITING THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR THE TEMPERED STEEL*, FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE PLOTBUNNY THAT CRAWLED OUT OF ANGBAND. 30 CHAPTERS, 111889 WORDS, 6½ YEARS, IT IS DONE. I DON'T. I CAN'T EVEN. I MEAN. I ACTUALLY FINISHED WRITING A FRICKIN' NOVEL. (TRILOGY.)
HOLD ME, SWEET SUMMER CHILD.
Ahem. Thank you, move on, nothing to see here. I DID IT. AHAHAHAHAHAH.
- - -
* In case anyone who's not already on board seriously wants to know what these occasional bouts of authorial excitement have meant, here's the bloody thing in all its miserable glory. (Also available in Russian BE STILL MY WRITERLY HEART.)
Interest in Tolkien fanfic (First Age) and tolerance for absurdly complicated Quenya names required. Background knowledge of The Silmarillion might be helpful. Mostly unbeta'd except for Part One. Heed the warnings. I'm not responsible for anything. Except that I am.
Post to Plotbunny
Oct. 8th, 2013 08:01 pmDude, Azruhâr, you haven't talked to me in three frickin' years and now you want to tell me your entire story at once? Not fair! What the hell is wrong with you? I have a life! I have a family, a house and a garden! I need my sleep! I CAN'T TYPE THAT FAST! Seriously, slow down!
[I'm aware that after this post, he'll probably go and sulk for another three years, but it's no good if I have the whole story in my head and can't get it written down, either.]
...
BUT I FINALLY WROTE MAITIMO'S CORONATION SCENE. *weeps tears of joy*
Only took six years in real time to get there, too. Now if I manage to get up to Fingolfin's coronation, I may actually finish the bloody story! Woo hoo.
Right. Move on, nothing to see here. Just had to get that out of the system. Goodnight!
BUT I FINALLY WROTE MAITIMO'S CORONATION SCENE. *weeps tears of joy*
Only took six years in real time to get there, too. Now if I manage to get up to Fingolfin's coronation, I may actually finish the bloody story! Woo hoo.
Right. Move on, nothing to see here. Just had to get that out of the system. Goodnight!
If you kindle Worlds, will they burn up?
May. 23rd, 2013 11:57 amSweet Eru, we've known about Kindle Worlds (I'm linking to Dawn's summary because it's critical but reasonable; I haven't read everything on the matter yet, and doubt I want to) for ONE DAY, and I'm already sick of the matter - to be precise, of the fannish reactions of the alarmist and rabble-rousing sort.
It has been mentioned that this might open an entire legal can of worms. I question the validity of that concern. People asking that question seem to have missed the point where Amazon acquired licenses from the authors or other copyright-holders. I repeat: They bought licenses. The authors agreed, for whatever reason, to make it legal for Amazon to publish other people's fanfiction of their works. They may not like the results of that agreement (but then, the Kindle Worlds rules and terms limit the field of what they might not like, so the only thorny matter that remains is that of quality and taste), but they've given it. Maybe they needed the money. Or they wanted to endear themselves to their fanbases. Or they're really just altruistic and think "Hey, isn't it awesome that people love our story so much that they spend time writing stories based on it? Let's reward that!" (Hey, a girl can dream.)
At any rate, unlike the silly dude who thought he could cash in on LotrFanFiction.net last year (two years ago? Whenever. Time flies!), I am pretty sure that Amazon is covering their bases as far as legal issues are concerned. No need to lose any sleep over that, I'd say. (And if you're worrying instead that Amazon might sue non-profit fanpages, I think the OTW is the right place to take your concerns to?) As Dawn says, since the original rights holders are on-board, the idea that the project will draw negative scrutiny to fandom in general is not a concern. So please, Don't Panic.
Dawn also mentions the question of "morality" that some fans have apparently raised, concerning "making money with fanfic". Dawn says Would that all artists with talent could make a living–or even part of a living–on their work. Word. Besides, making money with derivative works isn't new anyway. Series like Star Wars and Star Trek have sparked a shitload of bestselling (licensed) derivative novels. Scarlett or Rhett Butler's People are basically Gone with the Wind fanfiction - with a license. Jasper Fforde has made a lot of money with what is ultimately the crackiest crossover AU fanfic that ever cracked*, the Thursday Next series, without even asking the original rights holders (granted, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë et alia probably wouldn't have said much anyway). Speaking of Jane Austen, what about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?
In conclusion, if there be anything ammoral about making money with derivative fiction, you're coming a couple of decades - wait, no, centuries in fact - too late. It is already happening. Authors have been agreeing to this for years, unless they're dead and didn't even have a chance to say no. The only new idea seems to be that these licenses are no longer just given to established authors for a specific work, but to anyone willing to write canon-compliant, G- or PG- rated, straightforward fanfiction in the relevant fandoms.
Do the terms suck?
Sure. But then, you don't have to agree to them. You can continue to publish your fanfic on one of the many established (or even new) fanfic sites. You won't get any money for them, but then, that may not be your priority. Or you might (probably rightly) assume that nobody wants to make a movie out of your fanfic, anyway, so it doesn't matter whether you have the rights or Amazon has them... Finally, there's the old-fashioned and very rocky road of trying to obtain a license directly. (Depending on your fandom, that may be impossible or surprisingly easy?) Or you could file off the serial numbers so your fanfic passes as original -- see The Sword of Shannara or, more recently, 50 Shades of Grey to see how to do it. (I can't believe I just recommended people to look at 50 Shades of Grey. See what you made me do!)
What does that mean for me?
Virtually nothing, at the moment. I'm not in the fandoms for which Amazon has acquired licenses, nor likely to be. This is, of course, pure speculation on my part, but I suspect that Christopher Tolkien won't sell Amazon or any platform such a license. (If he did, I'd actually be delighted - whether or not I'd ever make use of it.) Other popular authors might be smart enough to realise that they don't need a middleman, and might instead create licensed platforms where authors can upload pay-per-click fanfic for their works, with or without an editorial/censorship board. (That's what I'd see J.K.Rowling doing - again, purely speculatively.)
Meanwhile, for AU, crack, crossover, adult het, slash, BDSM or other "difficult" genres, as well as for fanfic authors who don't want to sell
And who knows, Dawn might be right (yet again ;)): Maybe fanfic will become more widely accepted/acceptable with this new development.
Or then, it might not.
At any rate, I'm pretty unworried - but sort of frustrated by the kneejerk reactions I've been reading all of yesterday and some of today. (If you feel the same, I'm sorry to have added to your frustration.)
I'm not deactivating comments on this, so you can tell me your opinion on this matter; but I may not respond. That won't mean that I'm ignoring you, or that I'm not taking your (possibly deviating ;)) opinion seriously, or whatever -- it just means that I'm already tired of the discussion, so while I felt the need to state that here, I just can't be bothered to take it any further.
You may now go on with your lives. ;)
- - -
*Which sort of makes it hysterically absurd that he initially was opposed to people writing fanfic. DUDE. DUDE!
HAPPY LAST DAY! ;D
In the apocalyptic Tolkien/every mythology ever/2012 theory crossover fanfic I never ended up completing, ( you don't actually have to read on if you don't want to )
Of course, the reasonable people among us know that just because a calendar ends doesn't mean time ends (or every 31st of December would be a cause for great distress). And 2012 theories haven't been fun anyway ever since Roland Emmerich went and made a lousy movie about the end of the world (but I didn't know that back in 2002, of course). But I still liked the idea of that story.
(Probably more than I ever would've liked the story, if I'd actually gone and written it at some point during the LAST 10 YEARS I MEAN THAT SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.)
Anyway, Happy Last Day!
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
juno_magic, who is right as usual!(Question to the Romanists among ye: Is "gene pool" really "piscina genética"? BWAAAHAHAHAH!)
So this morning at dA, I find a comment on the gift art I made for
hhimring a while back:Wow! The Tempered Steel is a thing I translated into Russian - at least half of it. I did it for my personal fun without meaning to share it with anyone... I chose it because it was the best fiction on this theme I could find. So - this is you! )) Regards!
Actually, I initially read no further than into Russian because after that my brain melted. OMG. OMG I have been translated. BE STILL, MY WRITERLY HEART. Dear previously unknown Russian fangirl, no need to justify yourself. HAPPY LYRA IS HAPPY.
- - -
Yes, you may all go on with your lives now. I just had to share this. SQUEE.
During my second or third re-reading of the Sandman series, I was bitten by a plotbunny for a graphic novel that I always wanted to... write? draw? create, anyway. (Random aside: Mark of Mark Reads currently reads The Sandman.)
I actually drew a few (really crappy) panels, and I wrote a few scenes in all-text.
Basically, it was a Silmarillion/Real World crossover in which in the end ALL THE MYTHS WOULD TURN OUT TO BE TRUE. I did all this "future" research for suitable events that would be useful for the storyline, too! I was delighted that there would be a Venus transit in 2012, BEFORE the Olympic Games, for instance, because both of those would work really well for SECRET PLOT I had in mind! And it had to be 2012 because of THE END OF THE WORLD (that was long before Roland Emmerich announced his attention to make a crap movie based on the premise).
Well, and then I never got around to doing much about it.
And anyway, there was so much time left until 2012!
...
That Venus transit happened yesterday. In the storyline of my presumably-never-to-be-written grand graphic novel, Venus would now have disappeared and Fëanor (not his style to wait for the Valar to finally come around, is it?) would be in possession of one Silmaril again. And so it begins.
...
...
...
Well, it sounded better in my head anyway.
Still, I'm feeling slightly wistful. I mean, I really invested brainpower into that story, and actually saw several panels - pages, even - before my mind's eye, and always sort of looked forward to getting them done for real. (The ones I did draw, of course, never looked half as good. :P) But by now it feels sort of pointless to do anything about the thing. In 2013, the surprise ending would after all be no longer surprising...
Blah.
Oh well. At least I can always re-read The Sandman. >_>
I have a good feeling about this
Feb. 29th, 2012 09:05 pmMarch is almost upon us.
Because a lot of really important stuff is happening in March [3019 TA] in The Lord of the Rings, the Anglophone Tolkien fandom traditionally celebrates "Back to Middle-earth Month" in March. Because this is the year of The Hobbit, this year it's a Hobbit event.
Well, sort of. In reality, it's just based on the name of Bingo Baggins, who just might have invented Bingo (we all know that Bandobras Took invented Golf, after all ;)). So we're playing fandom Bingo.
So there are 75 numbers, 31 of which will be called.
As I went slightly overboard and claimed 16 cards, I actually have at least one prompt for every number, so whichever will be called, I'll have something to write every. single. day.
Oof.
I should be all panicky.
In order to be prepared a little better, I made a spreadsheet* on which I listed all prompts to a number, and sorted them according to which might go together, and noted down any story ideas that I got just from reading those prompts (the instant plotbunnies, so to say). There are several combinations that hit it off at once, which is great, and several which I think can be incorporated with my current WiPs, which is likewise great. Some, I think, can be combined with some effort. Of course, there are also prompts that give me no idea at all. Or inspiration may strike suddenly - who knows!
At any rate, I'm pretty excited.
Part of the excitement is that I've only recently started to write (creatively) again. I've already observed that for about half a year after the birth, I suddenly lacked an interest in books and reading -- anything but magazines (especially on parenting) and parenting guidebooks didn't motivate me at all. I think I managed to read two "real" (that is, fictional, with a story in it) books between August and December of 2011.
Likewise, I didn't have any inspiration to write. I signed up for the Season Of Writing Dangerously, and then didn't do more than start new chapters on three of my WiPs. I signed up for NaNoWriMo, and then stopped after 5000 words. I wrote a lot of reviews (in terms of "this is me we're talking about") for the MEFAs, so that's something, I guess. But the creative juices? All drained out of me, sucked away with the milk or something. Normally, I puzzle on WiPs or my mental comfort fanfic/film/whatever you wanna call it when I'm bored or lying in bed waiting for sleep to come. Even that didn't happen in those months. When lying in bed, I fell asleep right away anyway; when I was bored, the mind was pulling a blank.
By January, things finally began to shift. My body began to return to mostly normal (for instance, I got my period again, not that any of you wanted to know that), and so did the creativity-craving parts of my mind. I decided that I didn't need parenting guides anymore because every so often they just contradict each other anyway, and by now I'd surely read anything worth knowing somewhere. I read books with stories in them again.
And, after waking up one morning with the brilliant idea that the solution to the beginning of the third part of TTS, which I hadn't managed to continue for literally years, was simply to write it from someone else's point of view (yes, I know, that's about the oldest trick in the book. All you other writers are welcome to laugh at me) - and suddenly where there had been several aborted attempts at writing a new chapter, there were two finished chapters. After that, I actively stopped myself because much of what I was about to write will do nicely as responses to certain B2MeM prompts. Hum, hom...
I suppose it'll mess with my usual way of writing. Normally, when I work on a story, I write it chronologically (though I may add some stuff in the editing process, of course - but on the whole, I write from beginning to end). I don't write one scene here, one scene there, and then try to link them later. I don't write the ending first and then make my way backwards. I may make notes or an outline if I have an idea for something that lies ahead of where I am, but I don't turn those into proper prose until the rest of the story caught up.
However, many of the scenes that I have in mind for my WiPs that are perfect for some prompts happen at places I just haven't reached yet. So I'll write them now, and hope that some day they'll fit with the rest of the story once I've reached the right point. We'll see if that works out! (I may even share them, under a spoiler cut.)
So, in short, I'm really looking forward to this challenge, and hoping that I'll be able to participate and write a lot! Yes, even though it'll never make me money. [Well, probably. I'm still secretly (or now, no longer so secretly) toying with the idea of de-Númenorising TEA, just because I LIKE that one and genuinely believe it's good writing. Not that I don't do that for (some parts of) TTS - but it's impossible to de-Maedhros-ise that, and Maedhros, alas, very obviously belongs to
But I digress!
Anyway. Things are moving. March. Tomorrow.
(Maybe I'll be able to work with my bees again without beeing - whoops, typo, but I'm leaving it in because it's so punnily a propos - terrfied of them? WE WILL SEE.
SPRING IS COMING.)
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*Yes, I'm taking it THAT seriously, why are you surprised?
Fannish observation, feel free to ignore
Dec. 9th, 2011 07:06 pm*snickers*
In Tolkien - specifically, Silmarillion - fanfic, there's a sort of movement that strives to explain the originally mythological goings-on and/or backgrounds in other ways, mostly natural science. Sometimes this results in really awesome stories and thought experiments while sometimes I dislike it because it deconstructs things just a bit too much for my taste. Kinda like in real life, really: If it gets too deconstructive, I'm off...
Anyway, among the MEFA nominees is ( OMG SOMETHING SPOILERIFIC IF YOU HAVEN'T READ 'ON THE TWILIT PLANET BELOW' YET! )
(I thought I'd never get to use this icon. Finally! Finally! >:D)
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In more productive news, I cut all the reeds in our constructed wetland (thank you,
al_pha!), because that's what you have to do in autumn to keep it nice and orderly and growing back next spring, or something. Most of the reeds I used as mulch for the garden, but some I kept to try making skeps later on. No, I won't use skeps on my real bees, but they'll be cool to have for LARP events. Remember, guys, it's all fun and games as long as it only happens to fictional people! Or bees, as the case may be.Welcome to Fail Month, apparently
Jul. 4th, 2011 03:34 pmI admit that I was mildly amused by the most recent Amazon fail. For those who don't know, Amazon.de apparently sent out a few hundred pre-ordered copies of the most recent A Song of Ice and Fire instalment last week. Official publication date: July 12th. The same apparently happened - on a smaller scale - with Amazon.jp. Afterwards, several German bookshops also put their copies of A Dance with Dragons (that is, the book in question) on the shelves and sold them.
( Lots of rambling, nothing important, just my opinion, this is really just here for the sake of completeness. )
As for the Amazon Fail, I'm still mildly amused, and still congratulating the lucky fans who got their copies early, and still wishing the others that they'll manage to escape the spoilers. And that's that. Look how generous I am.
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Next topic!
I was initially completely indifferent when the first posts about the LOTRFF chaos showed up: I never worked with LOTRFF at all; I may have read a story or two there, for the MEFAs, as the badly thought-out page layout looks kinda familiar (hint: grey script on black is not the best of ideas, particularly if you're dealing with great amounts of text), but that's about it. So I pretty much just shrugged.
Within a few hours, however, it transpired that this was actually a failfest of epic proportions. I'm too lazy to sum it up, but fortunately I don't have to:
esteliel wrote a fine article here; if you want more, you can have a collection of related links here. Long story short: The owner of a LOTR fanfic archive sold said archive (which is her right, though I disagree with the way it was handled) to an investor who plans to make money with said archive (which is not a good idea, whatever else you may think about the guy). She, apparently, did not research him as well as she might have; he, apparently, is completely unaware of who he's dealing with in every direction...Since then, I've been avidly reading along, because even though I have nothing to do with the concerned archive, it's been getting exciting. Which is actually why I posted those two links: I think this is so exciting that even people who are not in the fandom might find them educating and/or entertaining. So much fail! So much ignorance!
( Further rambling, not actually important either, just my opinion should you care for it )
Ah, fandom. Keep being awesome. Or batshit. Whatever, as long as you are.
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*Yes, really!
²I don't know why publishers don't seem to realise that. I mean, I am the impatient sort of person who will buy the hardcover or the over-sized deluxe softcover just to bloody own it already - but I know several people who won't, who want all the books of the same series on their shelf to look like each other and who do have the willpower to wait for the appropriate paperback edition no matter how long it takes, or who'll read the book elsewhere - borrow a friend's copy, go to the local library, or yes, read some online version of, erm, questionable legality - and then (and this is the important part) still buy the paperback edition of a book they already know by then just to make up the set, so the author and the publisher will still get their money.
³There, now you can google that line if you want to read the original entry and don't already know where to find it, so there's no need to link anymore.
****whatever GRRM appears to believe.
Help me, flist, you are my only hope
Sep. 3rd, 2010 10:12 pmOk.
So let's assume I have written a short story. No, it is not important, it is only fanfic for the SWG birthday bash, so it matters only to me and perhaps five other people. But.
My computer has apparently completely eaten it. Not as in, "I can't find it," but as in, "I can find it but can't open it, because my computer has decided that it is encoded funnily and when I ask it to decode and open it, all I get is three pages of ##############. Oh, the last footnote is actually legible. Hurrah.
As I don't think I have the heart to re-write the entire bloody story, even if it was cute and fluffy and even though it was only three pages... do any of you have any awesome tricks re: salvaging files ruined by computer? If you do, give them to me.
Otherwise I am going to break down and cry, I am serious, because this appears to be melodramatic emo Lyra summer or something of the sort AND I DO NOT WANT DAMMIT.
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In less desperate news, I took the cats to the vet today. Nothing bad, just their annual vaccinations. They, of course, considered that extremely bad. 'náro in fact found it so bad that he -- busted his transport box and walked around in the car. Have you ever tried to drive a car while a cat was inspecting the back seat, the trunk, the leg room, finally sitting down half-way across the hand brake and
The Sorrows of a Fannish Procrastinatrix
Dec. 31st, 2009 01:10 pm*sighs*
I probably shouldn't even hope that I'll somehow manage to write all those MEFA reviews I didn't have time for or couldn't arse myself to write earlier now, right?
I managed to review 8 stories since yesterday (most of them 10-point reviews, too), but now I'm running out of Things I've Already Read, so now I'd have to read AND come up with reviews. There are 55 stories I haven't yet read on my Wish list, even after I cut it severely, and I suspect that the stories left are all stories that I'll want to give seven or more points, so I'll have to come up with long reviews, too. (There's only so far you can get by generous use of "tremendously" and "particularly" and "thoroughly". Everywhere else you have to cut down on adverbials, only the MEFA reviewing system makes them indispensable. Verbose paraphrasing for the win!)
Oh, and I also should prepare our New Year's Eve party tonight.
Yeah.
I guess I'll just have to live with failure and learn from it for next year. *sighs* At least I managed to review the stories that I myself nominated, because anything else would have been even more embarrassing.
Gnaaaah. Bad consumer, no
I haven’t properly updated this LJ in ages, and there are various things I should have written about, and meant to write about. I never got around to the first few, and then whenever something new cropped up, I thought, “No, I can’t write about this before I’ve written about…”, and so it all got postponed indefinitely.
To break that run, I will for the moment pretend that I did write all those entries I should have written in late July and all through August, and write this entry without first listing everything I should’ve said.
So I'm at work, and because work is boring and I felt uninspired, writing-wise, and can't go making up lame fandom-inside jokes (What's a Númenorean in Middle-earth? - Out of his depth. HAH!) all the time, and I have to get all those MEFA stories read at some point, I copied one of the novels I meant to read into a word document and started reading.
The story as such is all right, and quite well-written, and I am all the more peeved by the not so good bits.
The first, and this is something that annoys me tremendously, is the use of ellon and elleth where there is absolutely no need for it. I know that it is fashionable (even considered the only right way, I hear) in parts of the Tolkien fandom never never ever to call a male elf a "man" or a female elf a "woman". Nor can an elf of either sex just be "an elf". Or "somebody". Noooo, it has to be "the ellon/elleth" all the way. [Same bullshit in German fandom, btw, where you could actually get the sex across by using der Elb or die Elbin (and PLEASE, not die Elbe, even though the elfin variant would be die Elfe. Die Elbe is a river that ends in the North Sea, not any sort of pointy-eared person, damn it.)]
It drives me batty. If I happened to be writing a story about Japanese people, I wouldn't go talking about otoko no hito or onna no hito all the time, now would I?
The argument for this fashion is, apparently, that "man" or "woman" are just not pretty enough. And supposedly Tolkien neeever ever would have gone calling a male elf a "man", because that would be a male mortal.
Dude, no.
I'm too lazy to look up quotes now, but I know I could come up with a shitload that have "man" and "woman" for either Elf or mortal. A capitalised "Man" would be definitely mortal (that's why we do the funky capitalisation thing), but a "man" is any male sapient being, just as any female sapient being is a "woman", regardless of race. Use "elf-man" or "elf-woman" if you want to be precise, but go away with the bloody Sindarin*. And honestly, in a story set purely in Valinor, why bother? Especially in places where you would, in a story about humans, use "someone" or just plain "he" or "she" instead of "the man/woman". Seriously. WE ALL KNOW THEY'RE ELVES, WE DO NOT NEED TO BE REMINDED EVERY 20 WORDS. - Tolkien actually very rarely used the Elvish words, preferring - the English. GO FIGURE.
But ok, I guess it's a matter of taste. I had the story in a word document anyway, so I did some CTRL+H and voilà, the annoying ellyn and ellith disappeared.
As I said, on the whole the story is good. And at work I'm glad for all distractions. I mean, I even read that awful book with the spaaarkling vampires and the personality-free protagonists that put me off the word "chuckle" for ever and ever at work. Work is special that way.
And then there was a line that totally rubbed me the wrong way. It went like this:
"There were children playing on the docks when the Noldor slaughtered their kin at Alqualondë." And goes on about how even millennia later nobody talks about that.
Which I thought unlikely, because a) the singers would doubtlessly have had a feast day about this one, not hushed it up, and b) it doesn't even make sense within the context of the whole story.
I first meant to write a rant, but then it turned into a decadrabble. Or whatever you call a ficlet of 1,000 words.
( In lieu of a rant. For the non-Tolkienists: warning for Tolkienism, skip at own leisure. For the Tolkienists: warning for blood, guts and gore, because Alqualondë is not a happy place. + overuse of the word 'those'. )
Not sure whose POV this is supposed to be. One of the sons of Fëanor, likely, but I'm not certain who. Not Celegorm or Curufin, I guess, but that still leaves five.
No idea about the context either.
Whatever.
If nothing else, that was therapeutic.
And now I go back to reading, because the story isn't bad, just choosing to annoy me a little every now and then.
This is gonna be a long Awards season.
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*The story is mostly set in 4th Age Valinor, so at least it's actually possible that they'd be using Sindarin in Valinor.
Hurray for random art. & other shorties
Mar. 14th, 2007 06:27 pmThis is a Pinselohrelf (the zoologically correct English term would be Red River elf, but the joke gets kind of lost in translation).
macalla_ knows why.fuchs knows why his (yes, it's supposed to be a he) name is Oshwatadelooohioht.- - -
Heute in der Firma haben wir in der Mittagspause kurz Galgenmännchen gespielt. Die Worte, die geraten werden mussten, waren FUSSNOTENTRENNLINIE, REAKTORSCHNELLABSCHALTUNG und LUFTSCHUTZBUNKER.
...
...
...
Das hat vermutlich eine tiefere Bedeutung, aber sie ist mir temporär entglitten.
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In less amusing news, my project partner - the one from the museum project - wrote to tell me today that she's starting an apprenticeship this summer, which means she's dropping out of uni and thus no longer needs the certificate we've been working for.
At least she's e-mailed me her part of the project report. Well, "her part"... it's supposed to be 15 pages in the end, each of us is supposed to do about half, she sent me four pages. But it's more than nothing, I suppose. >_>
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Began chapter 8 of That Plotbunny From Angband. First time I got beyond chapter 2 of anything, so yay. It now features not one but THREE different character points of view, capslock!Fingon, and a lot of blatant general description. But at least it's still getting written.
Wish I could say the same about my term papers. >.
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