(no subject)

[shapinglight]

Writing is so bloody hard these days! I've been going over and over this trivial little piece, which is all I have for plot_wout_porn. It's only twelve pages, but I've lost count of the number of times I've revised it, and it still seems horribly clunky when I re-read.



I don't know if it's me being more fussy or what, but it wasn't always like this. Today, for instance, because I'm bored at work, on a whim, I went back and re-read the posts I've made on 27th July for every year I've had an LJ. Yes, a pointless exercise, I know, but I can't seem to utilise my time the way I did to do something creative.

In 2003, I didn't make a post on this day
In 2004, I was wittering on about a holiday I'd been on
In 2005, I made 4 posts on this day. Yes, 4. One was a Happy Birthday post (waves to kassto), one was a topical post about Sikh tourists from Birmingham (UK) being forced off a New York tour bus at gunpoint by police because someone had thought they looked 'suspicious'. One was a fic rec, and one was a fic I'd written myself - a piece of absurdist porny fluff that that I'm sure I banged off in one hour flat.
In 2006, I made two posts on this day: a kassto birthday post and one about birdwatching (at least I'm consistent, I suppose).
In 2007, I made 6 posts on this day (I obviously had no life at the time, or too much time on my hands, not sure which): yet another kassto birthday post, two sections of the fic that would become Age of Unreason but which I called in draft Vampire Slayers of Gor (yeah, hilarious!), one a review of a Buffy comic (no 5, The Chain, which I didn't like then and still don't, because I think it's dull and preachy), and two squeeing posts about Angel comics news from Comic Con that year.
In 2008, I made 4 posts on this day again, three sections of Age of Unreason (because yes, I was still writing it a year later), plus a not very squeeing post on news about the Angel comics from Comic Con that year. See? I was learning my lesson about the comics.
In 2009, I made one post - a technical question about changing banners on your LJ layout (something I still can't do, sadly). If Comic Con had just happened, I must have felt I had nothing to say about it, and I wasn't writing anything either.
And this year, I'm writing this, which, now I've finished it, seems the most pointless 27th July entry yet, and doesn't at all address the point of why fic writing has become so much harder, even if the years when I was writing/posting fic on this day outnumber the ones where I wasn't.

But at least I still said happy birthday to kassto. :)

So how is your July 27th?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Really we should make this into a meme. Pick a date and go over your LJ history to see what you posted on that day. Not sure that it would prove anything, but might be fun.

[shapinglight]

Really we should make this into a meme.

It would make quite a good one, I suppose. I don't know how you go about making memes, though.

[next_to_normal]

You just call it a meme and hope other people copy it. :)

[shapinglight]

Ah. That simple.

[sentine.livejournal.com]

In 2009, I made one post - a technical question about changing banners on your LJ layout (something I still can't do, sadly).

At least, I can maybe help you with something ;)

If it works for your Journal style, here is a simple way to add a banner at the top of your journal:

Go to Journal Style
Click on Customize Journal Style
In the left-hand column, click on Custom CSS
Where it says Custom Stylesheet, there's a box. Copy this into it:


.headerimage {
height: 300px;
background-image: url("http://your url") !important;
background-repeat: no-repeat !important;
background-attachment: scroll !important;
background-position: center !important;

margin-bottom: 15px;
}



Only add your image url, and adjust the height to the height of your banner.

[shapinglight]

:whimper: I still don't understand, but thank you.

[next_to_normal]

Heh, I don't think I've ever posted 6 times in one day (I think my max is 3). It's kind of cool to go back and see what you were talking about on the same date. (Mine is less interesting, as I only have two years' worth of posts, and they were both fic.)

I've pretty much given up on fic writing for the moment (no idea why it's so much harder, but OMG IT IS). I have sort of challenged myself to 100 days of posting every day - today is day 82 - but even that has gotten difficult lately.

[shapinglight]

It's kind of cool to go back and see what you were talking about on the same date.

It is, though I'm not sure what I should take from it, beyond that I've got busier, a lot more boring, a lot less creative, and very disenchanted with the Buffy/Angel comics. :)

Re: fic writing - I always sit down at the computer at some point on a Monday (my one day off a week) with the intention of trying to write. These days, though, intentions are mostly all I have. :(

[next_to_normal]

I've given up on fic writing completely at this point, and am just focusing on editing stuff that's already written. No sense forcing something that won't budge.

[shapinglight]

True. I always meant to edit some of my earlier fics - God knows, they could do with it. But I've never managed to find the time or will power.

[hello-spikey.livejournal.com]

It's amusing to see the path of time in LJ.

I was just going through all my poem entries to see what sort of poem gets the most comments. (Funny ones, FYI.) So... right there with you on the non-productive time wasting ideas.

ARGH! I have only two pages of my Plot-without-porn done!! *laments*

Must... write...

And I am absolutely certain that whatever you have written is just lovely so stop torturing the poor pages and let them be!

[shapinglight]

I was just going through all my poem entries to see what sort of poem gets the most comments. (Funny ones, FYI.)

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Laughter is always good. :)

As for Plot Without Porn, I'm just glad to have something, even if I can't stop tinkering with it. It's the only fic writing challenge I've signed up to this year and I'd be mortified to flunk out.

[whichclothes.livejournal.com]

I'm sitting in an airport for the 4th time in 11 days. And last night I finished my first draft of my plot_wout_porn fic, only a little porn crept in against my will. But there is a lot more plot than porn, so I hope it works. I still have to reread the thing and see if it makes any sense at all.

[shapinglight]

Well, at least yours has plot. Mine doesn't have porn, true, but it doesn't really have plot either. :(

And I don't envy you all that flying. I hate flying.

[whichclothes.livejournal.com]

I don't miknd flying when I'm kidless, because then I can read and write in peace. Don't much enjoy it with an wiggly 7 year old, though.

[ex_peasant441]

If you're on your twelfth revision it is definitely time to stop and send it back for a second beta. Bearing in mind that last time you said it was pants and it wasn't.

[shapinglight]

I have no idea which beta I'm on. I just know that last night I started to go through it again from the beginning and every single sentence seemed to need re-writing. :(

Clunk, clunk, clunk.