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Oct. 18th, 2011 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightLJ is terribly quiet, isn't it? Everyone's saying it, but it doesn't seem to help it get any busier. In fact, I suspect a lot of you are like me: the quieter it gets, the more reluctant you are to post yourself. :(
I know I'm not helping matters much. I don't seem to have a lot to say, especially not about BtVS, which is sad.
Ah well, I'm just going to burble on about other stuff, then, including that hoary old fall back subject, my fanfic writing woes.
In actual fact, I'm not that woeful at the moment, which is not to say it's going exactly smoothly. I tried to write more of my Spike/Giles season 7 series yesterday (I'm about half way through the next instalment), but it didn't go well, as in I knew that everything I'd written was crap and I didn't really know where I was going with it. But it's okay(ish), because today on the walk to work I worked out how to go forward (I hope), so it should be easier next time. And it's not like I didn't do any writing at all. I wrote 1500 words of a ficlet for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
nekid_spike's Halloween nekid numbers prompts. Lucked out with the prompts (or partly, the 'kink' I have to write is weird, IMO, because it's not actually kinky at all, but then fandom's interpretation of 'kink' is rather broader than non-fandom's. People will say they have a kink for babyfics, for instance, whereas I tend to think that the words 'kink' and 'baby' don't really belong in the same sentence unless we're talking adults with a kink for pretending to be babies, and I'm pretty sure that in most instances we're not).
Ahem! Got sidetracked there. Anyway, I lucked out with the characters to be paired with Spike in the prompt, in that I can either have Xander or Darla. I won't even bother asking you to guess which I chose.
So yes, that went reasonably well, until, after 1500 words or so I decided that I'd had enough, even though I had another hour and could possibly have finished the whole thing. That's the difference between now and when I first started writing fanfic. Then, I would have carried on. Now, carrying on whan I felt I'd had enough would feel like mental torture, and writing still does feel like that sometimes. I feel that if I have to write another sentence I'll start screaming. But I'm sure that's normal. Er...is it?
That apart, and apart from a weekend trip to London, in which I discovered all over again how irritating/embarrassing S's older sister's husband can be (he outdid himself this time, so much so that I'd die of shame if I had to repeat what he said), I've not done a lot except watch telly. But there isn't much to watch. I'm still ploughing through Downton Abbey, but I'm afraid it's got to the stage where every plot point makes me roll my eyes and I feel I'm just waiting for another Iain Glen cameo (he definitely put on weight to play Jorah Mormont, I was sure he had). Then there's Autumnwatch, which I usually love, but which this year is driving me nuts. I feel like I'm in a timewarp and have gone back to when my kids were little and used to watch Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan on The Really Wild Show, because now she's turned up in the Autumnwatch studio, it seems to have devolved somehow. God, she's irritating! She really should not be allowed outside of children's telly, and I bet even kids find her so hyper they feel the need for a nap after watching her.
A-and that's it. I've nothing else to say. I haven't even seen any interesting birds. How are all of you?
ETA: I suppose there is one other thing, but it's of no interest to anyone except myself. I'm rather miffed by what looks like yet another turn to the dark side for my favourite X-Men character. I hope I'm wrong, but it doesn't look good. Might've known the current status quo was too good to last. :(
I know I'm not helping matters much. I don't seem to have a lot to say, especially not about BtVS, which is sad.
Ah well, I'm just going to burble on about other stuff, then, including that hoary old fall back subject, my fanfic writing woes.
In actual fact, I'm not that woeful at the moment, which is not to say it's going exactly smoothly. I tried to write more of my Spike/Giles season 7 series yesterday (I'm about half way through the next instalment), but it didn't go well, as in I knew that everything I'd written was crap and I didn't really know where I was going with it. But it's okay(ish), because today on the walk to work I worked out how to go forward (I hope), so it should be easier next time. And it's not like I didn't do any writing at all. I wrote 1500 words of a ficlet for
nekid_spike's Halloween nekid numbers prompts. Lucked out with the prompts (or partly, the 'kink' I have to write is weird, IMO, because it's not actually kinky at all, but then fandom's interpretation of 'kink' is rather broader than non-fandom's. People will say they have a kink for babyfics, for instance, whereas I tend to think that the words 'kink' and 'baby' don't really belong in the same sentence unless we're talking adults with a kink for pretending to be babies, and I'm pretty sure that in most instances we're not).Ahem! Got sidetracked there. Anyway, I lucked out with the characters to be paired with Spike in the prompt, in that I can either have Xander or Darla. I won't even bother asking you to guess which I chose.
So yes, that went reasonably well, until, after 1500 words or so I decided that I'd had enough, even though I had another hour and could possibly have finished the whole thing. That's the difference between now and when I first started writing fanfic. Then, I would have carried on. Now, carrying on whan I felt I'd had enough would feel like mental torture, and writing still does feel like that sometimes. I feel that if I have to write another sentence I'll start screaming. But I'm sure that's normal. Er...is it?
That apart, and apart from a weekend trip to London, in which I discovered all over again how irritating/embarrassing S's older sister's husband can be (he outdid himself this time, so much so that I'd die of shame if I had to repeat what he said), I've not done a lot except watch telly. But there isn't much to watch. I'm still ploughing through Downton Abbey, but I'm afraid it's got to the stage where every plot point makes me roll my eyes and I feel I'm just waiting for another Iain Glen cameo (he definitely put on weight to play Jorah Mormont, I was sure he had). Then there's Autumnwatch, which I usually love, but which this year is driving me nuts. I feel like I'm in a timewarp and have gone back to when my kids were little and used to watch Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan on The Really Wild Show, because now she's turned up in the Autumnwatch studio, it seems to have devolved somehow. God, she's irritating! She really should not be allowed outside of children's telly, and I bet even kids find her so hyper they feel the need for a nap after watching her.
A-and that's it. I've nothing else to say. I haven't even seen any interesting birds. How are all of you?
ETA: I suppose there is one other thing, but it's of no interest to anyone except myself. I'm rather miffed by what looks like yet another turn to the dark side for my favourite X-Men character. I hope I'm wrong, but it doesn't look good. Might've known the current status quo was too good to last. :(
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Date: 2011-10-18 02:09 pm (UTC)As for a more precise meaning of words, I agree with you that "kink for babyfic" is a very strange saying. Were it "a thing for babyfic" or "obsession" would make much more sense. But I guess kinkifying any otherwise benign genre may be the latest new and titillating practice in twisting the meanine of words.
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Date: 2011-10-18 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 02:43 pm (UTC)It is terribly slow. The only thing on my flist that seems to be busy is this d/l comm I belong to. Everything else is dead.
As for the use of the word 'kink' indiscriminately in fandom, it's not a new thing, I don't think. It's been like that as long as I can remember.
:is a fandom dinosaur, or at least a fandom mammoth:
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Date: 2011-10-18 02:45 pm (UTC)But yes, roll on season 2.
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Date: 2011-10-18 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 03:44 pm (UTC)We actually watched Countryfile this week which we don't normally do because it was about the Lincolnshire Fens. It was quite strange to see Freiston Shore and areas we've walked around there on the telly.
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Date: 2011-10-18 04:50 pm (UTC)I certainly hope so! Writing is so often a slog. I wish I was more disciplined.
However! I am excited for your Spike & Darla yarn!
I am dealing with wacky bureaucratic conundrums, which don't bear posting about, so I'll just hold off until there is more fic to put up. Thursday, maybe? Seasonal Spuffy Open Day!
If you're not finding enough to watch, could I interest you in coming along for the
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Date: 2011-10-18 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 05:03 pm (UTC)We don't get Downton Abbey until later this year. I know I could download but I'm being lazy and waiting for the television.
And only a few months until Game of Thrones is back! More Jorrah, more Tyrion! Woohoo.
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Date: 2011-10-18 05:19 pm (UTC)I was thinking back to the years when I could spend hours on LJ. Every day. There was so much fanfic to read and catch up with!
I know that when I go back and look at the many fanfics I started (never published) they are full of tropes and cliches. Even if I were to finish them I don't know that I'd want to post them. In fact, two of my favorites are baby!fics with similar plots. Sheesh.
I guess we really do write what we know.
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Date: 2011-10-18 08:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:38 pm (UTC)I can't say I blame you. I'm that close to giving up myself. I'm only watching it for the pictures at the moment. I watch Countryfile sometimes but I find Julia Bradbury a bit annoying too. :( Also, they were in Cheshire a while back and the piece on the Dee Estuary was so superficial I got a bit miffed.
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Date: 2011-10-18 08:41 pm (UTC)I'm sure I used to be disciplined. But of course I used to have more time too. Sorry about the wacky bureaucratic stuff. I hope it gets sorted soon and will look forward to the fic. I have several fics to catch up with, in fact.
I dunno about the season 6 rewatch. It's tempting, but since the last BtVS was season 1 two years ago I feel I ought to rewatch seasons 2, 3, 4 & 5 first.
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Date: 2011-10-18 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:43 pm (UTC)Yay! Except I'm sure season 2 isn't until April. That seems like forever at the moment.
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Date: 2011-10-18 08:45 pm (UTC)I know! It's not like that now. Re: your fics, if it helps, there are plenty of my early stories I would like to bury if I could, but they're out there now so I feel I have to leave them up as examples of bad writing.
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Date: 2011-10-18 08:58 pm (UTC)P.S. Meant to mention that I adore your new default icon! Very festive!
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Date: 2011-10-18 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 12:26 am (UTC)Psst, it's not so quiet that I didn't make those The Wire posts ;)
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Date: 2011-10-19 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 03:49 pm (UTC)As for LJ, I'm afraid I've been even more neglectful of it than usual. I managed to put together my hardest grouping of courses in my entire academic career for my last term of being an undergraduate. So, I've been spending most of my time agonising over schoolwork and feeling like an idiot.
However, I am actually making some tentative mental forays into considering doing some writing again in the nearish future. Well done on your writing, and I am very much looking forward to your Darla/Spike fic!
As for people saying they have a "kink" for something clearly not kinky, that always gives me pause, as well. At least, I certainly hope no one actually has a "kink" for baby-fics (Spike, or other clearly adult chars being juvenilised/mildly infantilised/whatever is a whole other kettle of fish, if it's done properly ;> )!
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Date: 2011-10-19 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 06:57 pm (UTC)I hope the agonising will end soon, and you can get back to writing even if it is like nails on a chalkboard sometimes.
The Spike/Darla fic is meant to be for Halloween so I hope I manage to finish it in time.
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Date: 2011-10-20 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 03:41 pm (UTC)I've never understood the appeal of fics involving chars having babies, but considering my own favourite fic topics, I am certainly in no position to cast stones. ;>
Thank you for the well-wishing re: school. I'm now theoretically in my final seven weeks of my bachelor's degree (barring failing something and having to make it up next term, which hopefully won't happen), and so I am down to what may possibly be the last five academic papers I ever write. I hate writing academic papers and generally think I am terrible at them, but I'm just trying to focus on getting through. Even if I barely scrape by with a 70% on all of them, it'll be done.
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Date: 2011-10-21 11:04 pm (UTC)Glad to hear you are writing still... and only doing it WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE IT! :-P Forcing yourself is never a good thing. Maybe that was why you got into such a heavy block to start with. ;-)
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Date: 2011-10-22 06:30 pm (UTC)Speaking of which, I read Family Reunion a while back (while I was stuck all night in an airport actually; thank heavens I'd saved a bunch of fic to read). I thought it was very, very well written - lots of visceral details, so that I felt grimy and moderately claustrophobic the whole time I was reading it. It did maybe the best job I'd ever seen of developing our BtVS vampire characters as monsters, even if occasionally somewhat sympathetic ones.
It kind of reminds me of Sunday Girl that way - have you ever read that? Sunday as sired by Spike back in the 70's, tons of Stockholm Syndrome stuff going on.
Anyway. I still haven't decided if I liked you fic, because it was deeply unpleasant (as I believe you intended it to be), but I was terribly impressed with it, with the writing and the scope of the plot and the character work. And I wanted to tell you.
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Date: 2011-10-24 02:06 pm (UTC)Thank you. I fear that unless
Good luck with those papers. What are you hoping to do once you graduate?
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Date: 2011-10-24 02:09 pm (UTC)RL does have a tendency to get in the way. I expect my flist will pick up as more news comes through about GoT season 2.
Forcing yourself is never a good thing. Maybe that was why you got into such a heavy block to start with. ;-)
It could well be, though I doubt it's a coincidence that it began around the time I had all that trouble with my mum. Even though things have calmed down now, it's added an extra dimension to my life that makes me feel more tired and really impacts on my time. Writing fanfic is way down on my list of to do's, sadly, which is why when I do get some time it's so frustrating to not be able to write anything.
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Date: 2011-10-24 02:14 pm (UTC)I do love writing Darla. I have a stalled story featuring her that I don't know if I'll ever finish (not least because I've completely forgotten what I meant to write :().
I have read Sunday Girl many years ago, and do appreciate the similarities to Family Reunion. She wrote a very good Drusilla.
I agree Family Reunion is deeply unpleasant (the current Darla fic is a sort of reprise on the same theme, but not nearly as nasty). It's also in need of some serious editing, not least because (I think) my writing style has improved since then but also because it contains some fail-y elements that don't quite work, but could be made to work given that most of the characters are evil. Anyway, thank you for reading it and for your thoughtful feedback.
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Date: 2011-10-25 01:00 pm (UTC)I hope your mom is doing as well as she can right now?
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Date: 2011-10-31 07:59 pm (UTC)