Wahoo!
So, it looks like we're back in business. Major kudos to the IT department for getting us back up and running. Life as we knew it had taken a sharp turn into the "so, what did we do before LJ again?"
I read books in the blackout/DDOS (or is it DOS?) attacks/what have you. Comfort Food, by the same author that did The Friday Night Knitting Club was not as good as her first novel. I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters, in fact, I wanted to hit everyone over the head and tell them to get a grip or get a life or stop being so damn annoying. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this kind of book, but where Knitting had a definite sense of sisterhood and friendships, Comfort felt like it was nothing but a non-stop ride of divas and backstabbing and bitching, which turned me off. The only reason I finished the book was because I hate leaving books half-read and I skimmed through it just to get to "The End".
30 Days of Fanfiction Meme, Days 14, 15, 16, and 17 (because they go together)
14 - Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
I’m comfortable going to any rating that I feel the storyline needs in order to tell itself. Most of my stories tend to stick to the PG-13, slight R ratings mostly because the rare, smutty NC-17 ones wind up turning out to be of the “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I just wrote that! It’s awful!” variety. If anything, I stick to the fade-to-black and let the reader’s imagination figure stuff out. There are tons of people out there that write sexy stories far better than I will ever do.
Last question: there are times that I had an entire G-rated story planned out when out of the blue, BAM! Here comes the R-rating, leaving me going “Seriously, guys? Think of the children!” at my characters. After that happens, it usually sticks into the new rating and then I’ll add in some new stuff in the earlier portion of the story so that it isn’t a shock when you have fluffy little bunnies frolicking in fields one minute and the next they’re…well, fluffy little bunnies frolicking in the fields.
15 - Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
Spoilers, for certain, especially if something in canon has just happened where you know that a lot of people haven’t gotten to that point in the book/movie/game/etc. yet. I will say, I’ve been incredibly lucky about reading things and still remaining unspoiled thanks to other people warning me first. There’s nothing like seeing “Dude! Did you know that Person X and Person Y are getting together?! Person X wasn’t ever really dead like everyone thought they were! I’m so happy!” to take the anticipatory wind out of your sails. Reading “contains spoilers for Chapter Nine and onward of Insert Book Title Here” lets me know to bookmark a fic to read later on when I’m past that stage and already know what’s up in the plot.
I some of my usual warnings include violence, language, and adult situations, with a clarification if it’s just mild make-outs or graphic sex or anything else in between. I don’t know about strange warnings, maybe excessive fluff?
16 - Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
I hate ‘em. I can never come up with anything good and it’s like pulling teeth to figure out what to say without giving the entire story away in one sentence.
17 - Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
I hate titles even more than I hate summaries. Sometimes they’re easy to name, other times anything I think of sounds really dumb. When doing chaptered fic, unless it’s an entry to any of the 30_hugs/romances/kisses challenge communities, I leave each chapter untitled, using 1/3 or 5/5 instead.
***
And now to post some fic over on bossy_muses.
I read books in the blackout/DDOS (or is it DOS?) attacks/what have you. Comfort Food, by the same author that did The Friday Night Knitting Club was not as good as her first novel. I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters, in fact, I wanted to hit everyone over the head and tell them to get a grip or get a life or stop being so damn annoying. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for this kind of book, but where Knitting had a definite sense of sisterhood and friendships, Comfort felt like it was nothing but a non-stop ride of divas and backstabbing and bitching, which turned me off. The only reason I finished the book was because I hate leaving books half-read and I skimmed through it just to get to "The End".
30 Days of Fanfiction Meme, Days 14, 15, 16, and 17 (because they go together)
14 - Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
I’m comfortable going to any rating that I feel the storyline needs in order to tell itself. Most of my stories tend to stick to the PG-13, slight R ratings mostly because the rare, smutty NC-17 ones wind up turning out to be of the “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I just wrote that! It’s awful!” variety. If anything, I stick to the fade-to-black and let the reader’s imagination figure stuff out. There are tons of people out there that write sexy stories far better than I will ever do.
Last question: there are times that I had an entire G-rated story planned out when out of the blue, BAM! Here comes the R-rating, leaving me going “Seriously, guys? Think of the children!” at my characters. After that happens, it usually sticks into the new rating and then I’ll add in some new stuff in the earlier portion of the story so that it isn’t a shock when you have fluffy little bunnies frolicking in fields one minute and the next they’re…well, fluffy little bunnies frolicking in the fields.
15 - Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
Spoilers, for certain, especially if something in canon has just happened where you know that a lot of people haven’t gotten to that point in the book/movie/game/etc. yet. I will say, I’ve been incredibly lucky about reading things and still remaining unspoiled thanks to other people warning me first. There’s nothing like seeing “Dude! Did you know that Person X and Person Y are getting together?! Person X wasn’t ever really dead like everyone thought they were! I’m so happy!” to take the anticipatory wind out of your sails. Reading “contains spoilers for Chapter Nine and onward of Insert Book Title Here” lets me know to bookmark a fic to read later on when I’m past that stage and already know what’s up in the plot.
I some of my usual warnings include violence, language, and adult situations, with a clarification if it’s just mild make-outs or graphic sex or anything else in between. I don’t know about strange warnings, maybe excessive fluff?
16 - Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
I hate ‘em. I can never come up with anything good and it’s like pulling teeth to figure out what to say without giving the entire story away in one sentence.
17 - Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
I hate titles even more than I hate summaries. Sometimes they’re easy to name, other times anything I think of sounds really dumb. When doing chaptered fic, unless it’s an entry to any of the 30_hugs/romances/kisses challenge communities, I leave each chapter untitled, using 1/3 or 5/5 instead.
***
And now to post some fic over on bossy_muses.