@potentsarlacc …oh right, I have a life I'm supposed to DO STUFF with.
1. Watching John Vickery as Gul Rusot on DS9 has yet to get any less awkward for me. I just… I keep expecting him to launch into Titus Andronicus. I hear his voice and all I think about is seeing him do Titus at Stratford last year.
2. …adding to my to do list: revamp femslash!Jensen/Misha around the Text From Last Night prompts, "(304): My god. We'll be gay porn millionaires" and, "(972): It's not my fault I help girls realize they're lesbians." And maybe make it original fic instead. Do I really want to try to write this for the first year that English-speaking authors can enter in the lesbian literary award? …Maybe. …I'm also making eyes at Dreamspinner Press and going, "hrmmm. Well, now. I could look into that."
3. Specifically, I'm thinking that I need to take the novel I started writing about an old RP character and… actually finishing it, ooops, and trying to submit it for the "Bittersweet Dreams" line. The downside is that the main focus of said novel was on my character's drug problem and addiction recovery, with his sexuality crisis being an aspect of the primary problem - a huge aspect of it - but… not the main focus. There was a "romance" plot, if you can really call, "an obsessive and unhealthy crush with chronic bullying and instances of sexual assault" romance. But, what do I know. Twilight and Wuthering Heights are romantic to some people.
4. …I just bought the ebook of what used to be known as "The Voice of the Turtledove." I'm still kind of really very, "ehhhhh" about the Catholic priest/parishioner aspect, but… it's career research and since it used to be a Dean/Cas fic, I trust it a little bit more than Random Other Novel Published By This Place.
5. The big problem with all of this (aside from, "lol, self, what are you doing trying to have thoughts about anything serious at 6:30, just go watch the Klingons kill each other") - THE BIG PROBLEM is, as ever, my resume-writing skills are not as up-to-par as my writing-anything-else skills. I'm better at writing poetry than resumes. I'm better at finding non-repetitive synonyms for smut scenes than I am at writing resumes, CVs, cover letters, etc.
6. …And I expect my parents might have a cow about the whole, "oh, yes, I'm investigating publishing opportunities… for predominantly gay erotica. …Oh, yeah, there's some het stuff in here, too, I guess… but it's kinky and you definitely can't mention it at any of Mom's fancy party things. …Say that I'm writing niche-romance or something." But I'll burn both of these bridges when I get to them.
7. I'll also, at some point, have to burn the bridge of, "akfwhrg, what the fuck even am I doing with my life, writing romance stories, WHY DO I END UP DOING THIS" because… I don't know. I judge and get down on myself for not writing some totally epic revolution to the novel. Or for not being the sort of person who aspires to be JRR Tolkien or George RR Martin. Not that they're not totally great for various reasons, but… If I did the kind of world-building they do, I wouldn't want to write stories anymore. I'd want to write academic treatises or something.
7a. …and I'm still having issue with ASOIAF because… holy shit. Psychological realism in a fantasy setting, I get. …but I also firmly stand by Vonnegut's rules for writing, one of which is that your readers NEED to have someone to root for, and I just… cannot find anyone who's not some kind of hellishly off-putting. Mostly, it's because GRRM's morality seems to be black and really, really, REALLY dark grey instead of black and white, which I appreciate in THEORY, but not so much in execution.
Other times, though, it's because it's like… why bother getting attached to the characters when they're most likely going to die or get repeatedly crapped on for no apparent reason beyond, "well, it's ~realistic~" I mean. My main motivation to get through the first book was, "I really hate Viserys Targaryen, and someone on SF_D told me that he gets his in the most karmically appropriate way EVER, and I need to have that in my life." And… to each their own and whatnot, but for me, as a writer, when a reader's major motivation to finish the book is, "this guy is a bigger douchebag than everybody else, I want to see karma kick his ass" …that strikes me as kind of a problem.
8. dgjfgrh, Worf and Martok and Damar and Kira and Odo and Julian and Miles in this episode, though. Especially Worf and Martok. I just love those goddamn Klingons soooo much. I don't care if it's treason to my Vulcan/Cardassian heritage. *insert incoherent Klingon feelings here, okay nap-time.*
2. …adding to my to do list: revamp femslash!Jensen/Misha around the Text From Last Night prompts, "(304): My god. We'll be gay porn millionaires" and, "(972): It's not my fault I help girls realize they're lesbians." And maybe make it original fic instead. Do I really want to try to write this for the first year that English-speaking authors can enter in the lesbian literary award? …Maybe. …I'm also making eyes at Dreamspinner Press and going, "hrmmm. Well, now. I could look into that."
3. Specifically, I'm thinking that I need to take the novel I started writing about an old RP character and… actually finishing it, ooops, and trying to submit it for the "Bittersweet Dreams" line. The downside is that the main focus of said novel was on my character's drug problem and addiction recovery, with his sexuality crisis being an aspect of the primary problem - a huge aspect of it - but… not the main focus. There was a "romance" plot, if you can really call, "an obsessive and unhealthy crush with chronic bullying and instances of sexual assault" romance. But, what do I know. Twilight and Wuthering Heights are romantic to some people.
4. …I just bought the ebook of what used to be known as "The Voice of the Turtledove." I'm still kind of really very, "ehhhhh" about the Catholic priest/parishioner aspect, but… it's career research and since it used to be a Dean/Cas fic, I trust it a little bit more than Random Other Novel Published By This Place.
5. The big problem with all of this (aside from, "lol, self, what are you doing trying to have thoughts about anything serious at 6:30, just go watch the Klingons kill each other") - THE BIG PROBLEM is, as ever, my resume-writing skills are not as up-to-par as my writing-anything-else skills. I'm better at writing poetry than resumes. I'm better at finding non-repetitive synonyms for smut scenes than I am at writing resumes, CVs, cover letters, etc.
6. …And I expect my parents might have a cow about the whole, "oh, yes, I'm investigating publishing opportunities… for predominantly gay erotica. …Oh, yeah, there's some het stuff in here, too, I guess… but it's kinky and you definitely can't mention it at any of Mom's fancy party things. …Say that I'm writing niche-romance or something." But I'll burn both of these bridges when I get to them.
7. I'll also, at some point, have to burn the bridge of, "akfwhrg, what the fuck even am I doing with my life, writing romance stories, WHY DO I END UP DOING THIS" because… I don't know. I judge and get down on myself for not writing some totally epic revolution to the novel. Or for not being the sort of person who aspires to be JRR Tolkien or George RR Martin. Not that they're not totally great for various reasons, but… If I did the kind of world-building they do, I wouldn't want to write stories anymore. I'd want to write academic treatises or something.
7a. …and I'm still having issue with ASOIAF because… holy shit. Psychological realism in a fantasy setting, I get. …but I also firmly stand by Vonnegut's rules for writing, one of which is that your readers NEED to have someone to root for, and I just… cannot find anyone who's not some kind of hellishly off-putting. Mostly, it's because GRRM's morality seems to be black and really, really, REALLY dark grey instead of black and white, which I appreciate in THEORY, but not so much in execution.
Other times, though, it's because it's like… why bother getting attached to the characters when they're most likely going to die or get repeatedly crapped on for no apparent reason beyond, "well, it's ~realistic~" I mean. My main motivation to get through the first book was, "I really hate Viserys Targaryen, and someone on SF_D told me that he gets his in the most karmically appropriate way EVER, and I need to have that in my life." And… to each their own and whatnot, but for me, as a writer, when a reader's major motivation to finish the book is, "this guy is a bigger douchebag than everybody else, I want to see karma kick his ass" …that strikes me as kind of a problem.
8. dgjfgrh, Worf and Martok and Damar and Kira and Odo and Julian and Miles in this episode, though. Especially Worf and Martok. I just love those goddamn Klingons soooo much. I don't care if it's treason to my Vulcan/Cardassian heritage. *insert incoherent Klingon feelings here, okay nap-time.*