The sparkly, the Nicky, exercising critical faculties, long time no see, evil friends
I got Now or Never in the mail today - the limited edition with the bonus DVD, that is, because it was on sale for practically nothing and I'm cheaper than JC frugal at times. Also the 4-track version of Help Me, which was on sale for even less. Then when I went browsing local record stores this afternoon I found the BSB All Access DVD for, you guessed it, a negligible sum. I'm going to have a happy, sparkly, Nick-y kind of evening. Maybe with bonus moments of happy sparkly JuC-ness, because I really need to finish the Little PWP That Wouldn't.
It'll make a change from recent evenings. I have several kind friends who, between them, supply me with all kinds of music and make my playlist a thing of happy anarchy, but I think recently they've been conspiring against me; I keep getting 1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes, We Belong, and Mary Ellen Carter one after the other on my random rotation, and then I cry my way through all three. Clearly a fiendish plot of some kind. Or hormones. One or the other.
I love the "ask my characters questions" meme, though I have to agree with lesasoja that it's really weird to write answers in first person coming from a character you've previously only written in third. You'd think it would be just like writing dialogue for that character, but somehow, it isn't, quite. I guess largely because the way I write them, the characters would probably tangentially acknowledge the question and then ramble for half an hour about something else.
The discussion here, there and everywhere about fanfic crit, following destina's post, has been fun to read. I've forgotten who said that discussion of crit often creates a false dichotomy between be-nice-or-shut-up and going-for-the-jugular, but whoever it was, you're a smart cookie. That tends to be a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, though. Quite often, the only people who end up doing public crit are the ones who can't contain themselves any longer and are bursting at the seams with steam and vitriol, and then the fervent anti-crit people point at that and say see? see? nasty and evil! and the civilized middle ground is nowhere to be found.
My sekrit dream is to have a community like Prospect-L for some fandom I'm actually involved in. I mean, I love P-L, but I can't write Sentinel, and I'm not honestly very fannish about it, either, so it's more like a nice place to visit. I like to imagine it, though - a forum where you can discuss stories the same way you talk about them with your friends in chat.
A: So I read Cesperanza's story with the Dief thing, and I don't know, I mean it was funny and all, but that was a really weird plot device.
B: Oh, I thought that was cool. That's just what he'd be like. I wasn't sure about how it played out, though, I thought it was a bit flat compared with her other stuff.
A: Yeah? I loved the dialogue and all that stuff, thought it rocked, I just thought the premise was off. Like maybe she's been hanging out too much with those popslash people and their freaky magical realism obsession.
B: Hello, are you from Mars? This is due South we're talking about. They had magical realism before Justin Timberlake could wiggle his hips!
A: Yeah, no, don't bring Timberlake into this, please. DS had a completely different feel to it, though, they wouldn't have done it like that, and I think in a lot of her other stories she does it better--
And so on, and so forth. The opinions expressed in this hypothetical exchange do not necessarily reflect those of the author. (Hi, Ces!)
I should get back to answering character questions. Some of those characters I haven't thought about in a long time, and it's weird to see which ones were totally ready to speak up and which ones are having trouble with the concept of existing outside the word count of their story. And I have cute Boys to watch, and drunk boys to write about, and there's always the JuC mah jongg. I think I'm safe from having to clean the kitchen from sheer boredom. (Looking at the kitchen, I think maybe I should arrange to be really bored at some point.)
I heard Where Is the Love on the radio this morning, and barely refrained from squealing "Justiiiiin!" - mostly because the taxi driver was negotiating a tricky intersection, and he looked frazzled enough already. What I want to know is, when do I get to hear random JC during my taxi rides and convenience store visits? A little Chasez in addition to the Timberlake would make my day. :)
It'll make a change from recent evenings. I have several kind friends who, between them, supply me with all kinds of music and make my playlist a thing of happy anarchy, but I think recently they've been conspiring against me; I keep getting 1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes, We Belong, and Mary Ellen Carter one after the other on my random rotation, and then I cry my way through all three. Clearly a fiendish plot of some kind. Or hormones. One or the other.
I love the "ask my characters questions" meme, though I have to agree with lesasoja that it's really weird to write answers in first person coming from a character you've previously only written in third. You'd think it would be just like writing dialogue for that character, but somehow, it isn't, quite. I guess largely because the way I write them, the characters would probably tangentially acknowledge the question and then ramble for half an hour about something else.
The discussion here, there and everywhere about fanfic crit, following destina's post, has been fun to read. I've forgotten who said that discussion of crit often creates a false dichotomy between be-nice-or-shut-up and going-for-the-jugular, but whoever it was, you're a smart cookie. That tends to be a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, though. Quite often, the only people who end up doing public crit are the ones who can't contain themselves any longer and are bursting at the seams with steam and vitriol, and then the fervent anti-crit people point at that and say see? see? nasty and evil! and the civilized middle ground is nowhere to be found.
My sekrit dream is to have a community like Prospect-L for some fandom I'm actually involved in. I mean, I love P-L, but I can't write Sentinel, and I'm not honestly very fannish about it, either, so it's more like a nice place to visit. I like to imagine it, though - a forum where you can discuss stories the same way you talk about them with your friends in chat.
A: So I read Cesperanza's story with the Dief thing, and I don't know, I mean it was funny and all, but that was a really weird plot device.
B: Oh, I thought that was cool. That's just what he'd be like. I wasn't sure about how it played out, though, I thought it was a bit flat compared with her other stuff.
A: Yeah? I loved the dialogue and all that stuff, thought it rocked, I just thought the premise was off. Like maybe she's been hanging out too much with those popslash people and their freaky magical realism obsession.
B: Hello, are you from Mars? This is due South we're talking about. They had magical realism before Justin Timberlake could wiggle his hips!
A: Yeah, no, don't bring Timberlake into this, please. DS had a completely different feel to it, though, they wouldn't have done it like that, and I think in a lot of her other stories she does it better--
And so on, and so forth. The opinions expressed in this hypothetical exchange do not necessarily reflect those of the author. (Hi, Ces!)
I should get back to answering character questions. Some of those characters I haven't thought about in a long time, and it's weird to see which ones were totally ready to speak up and which ones are having trouble with the concept of existing outside the word count of their story. And I have cute Boys to watch, and drunk boys to write about, and there's always the JuC mah jongg. I think I'm safe from having to clean the kitchen from sheer boredom. (Looking at the kitchen, I think maybe I should arrange to be really bored at some point.)
I heard Where Is the Love on the radio this morning, and barely refrained from squealing "Justiiiiin!" - mostly because the taxi driver was negotiating a tricky intersection, and he looked frazzled enough already. What I want to know is, when do I get to hear random JC during my taxi rides and convenience store visits? A little Chasez in addition to the Timberlake would make my day. :)