(no subject)
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooored. No one was on today. D= And even though I have things to do which I like doing I'm still boooooooooooooooooooooored. Someone talk to me.
No?
Fine then.
I seem to have somehow become lugia*master's keeper. I'm not sure how that happened ... oh wait, that's right: he said he was writing a Lance story. In any case, twice today he's just told two authors to 'go read the rules and AFAA' without saying anything else, and constantly I feel the urge to stalk him and review everything he's looked at. We actually just had a conversation on a fic I was already reviewing (my second random review in two days, I'm so proud!) because he VMed the author and said something along the lines of, 'I don't mean to be rude, but you have no story worth noting here, so go read the rules and AFAA'. I objected, and yet our conversation was civil, although I note once again something I noticed during our 'conversation' in the fic ideas thread: the fact that he says something, and then later on says something else, and pretends that's what he's been saying all along. I don't know if it's just because he's horrible at expressing himself or just trying to save face, but I boggle at the fact that despite being a psychological whatsit, he still doesn't seem to grasp that he doesn't come across as particularly helpful or polite. And I promise I'll stop talking about him in my LJ now.
AFAA is nearly complete--the draft, anyway. The last bits are handwritten, and I still need to rifle through my editing textbooks to see exactly how you do use a semi-colon, but it should be done tonight my time so all you lovely people can tear it apart during your daytime. I think it's going to top 50,000 characters, so Pur is sad, because that means she has to struggle to cut something out so she can fit it all in one SPPf post. That and she's braindead, so she's not sure if half of what she's said makes sense or is even relevant.
EDIT: I lied; AFAA will be up sometime tomorrow my time, and at night for you guys. My brain is dead; I can't think. I also fucking hate grammar.
I'm also really really happy: last semester for one of my Honours classes we had a lot of discussion on writing and how we do it and all that shit. There was some lecture for Honours students on motivation and whatnot, which I didn't go to 'cos I'm lazy like that (also it's on the other side of the damn city) but a couple of the others did and reported back about it. One of the things they did stress was that the lecturers advocated setting aside an hour for writing everyday--kind of like NaNo. No editing, just write as much as you can for that hour. I've heard that kind of thing before, but it wasn't until we were discussing it in class and other people were trying it that I really felt the urge to, or felt I even could. I tried a couple times during the semester and failed most times--I typed up 1500 words on computer in doing it once, but it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. So I experimented a little and discovered my problem: I have a short attention span. Which is an incredibly depressing thought seeing as how I used to gobble books up and nowadays hardly pick one up 'cos I just can't seem to want to stick with them (but I'm reading plenty of manga and fanfiction instead! I mean ...) So anyway, the point is that I can't type steadily for an hour on my laptop 'cos I get distracted by things like the Internet or Solitaire (my highest score is upwards of 17,000 points in about 40 seconds in three-card dealing Solitaire. No joke.). I can't sit at home and handwrite 'cos then I just get something to eat or listen to music or or or--just about anything else.
Solution? GET OUTTA THE DAMN HOUSE. So I did. My favourite haunt is Gloria Jeans', which is an Aussie chain of coffeeshops, 'cos they have the best hot chocolate, but the nearest one is 45 minutes walk and I don't have a car (or, y'know, a proper licence) yet. If I go through the city then I always take an hour out and go into the Gloria Jeans' in Borders (my absolute favourite place of all time. Aside from the local anime/manga store. And my actual house.), but as I only have one class this semester and it only meets three times in 13 weeks, that doesn't leave much chance for going through the city. I could make special trips in, but train tickets cost nearly $16 for ten two-hour trips (and that's only the off-peak hour tickets; the all-hour ones cost nearly $30 for the same), and I was recently turned down for a job so I'd rather not spare the money until I find someplace else to shanghai into hiring me (a tough prospect considering my lack of experience).
But, there is an all-night coffeeshop/Subway/general store less than twenty minutes' walk away from my house. It's not Gloria Jeans, so not much in the way of atmosphere, but it's got massive windows and really comfy chairs, and the walk is a perfect length (I'm actually getting exercise!). Although it's been there for ages, I never really went into it until recently, and once I knew it was there I had someplace to go to and write more often (before, I was going to a park, which sucked 'cos it's winter and cold and rainy and so I didn't get out as often as I should have). I've actually been going out everyday for nearly three weeks to write (barring one day when I was feeling too depressed to get out of the house). And because it's public, it means I can't do something like, oh, stare at my page for an hour (yes, I have actually and can actually do that with frightening ease) without looking like an idiot--making social mores work for you FTW!
Anyway, the moral of the story is that once I had someplace to haunt, I've been writing like crazy--I'm amazed at how quickly things are being written (edited, on the other hand ...). For instance, I have a 'sekrit project', which is basically just a one-shot, but it's a long one-shot, 'cos it's deliberately in four parts. I wrote the thing in about ten days; 63 handwritten pages and upwards of 14000 words. I haven't actually typed it up yet, but when I first started this writing-hour thing I was writing about 5 pages a day, which, when I typed them up, equalled about 1100 words (nowadays I write an average of 6 pages--and actually getting into 7 lately--the former of which is about 1300 words). 12 sets of 1100 words and three extra loose pages--about 650 words?--yeah, about 14000. I miss that story. Now I'm scrambling to get my head around some of my other ones. Either way, I can't wait 'til NaNo.
So that's how I'm dealing with my writer's block. The bigger problem is actually editing everything with expediency; the sequel to 'The good fight', 'The mighty fallen', is written and just needs to be edited (which is a slight problem 'cos I'm all but rewriting some scenes) and I'm currently writing the missing scene for 'The good fight'. I tried to get a start on 'The fools' paradise' but I discovered that I don't actually know as much about how it begins as I do about how it ends, so that stalled on me until I can figure out details (because I kept on rewriting the beginning and I still didn't know what the fuck was happening). I also tried to get a start on the next chapter of 'Choice and Consequence', but that is an epic, massive battle between three sides, only one of which is willing to help one of the others, and the total number of combatants equals seven, each of whom have multiple pokemon. I spent most of that hour just trying to go step-by-step through the whole bloody thing--I did manage to get a start on it, and figured out that five of the seven battlers will only use two of their pokemon and the last two will only use one, and I also think I know my writing style for it--BUT IT'S STILL FUCKING SCARY AND SHIT I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING SO GONNA FAIL THIS SCENE WAAAHH.
I may need mind-maps. And even then I think I'll just end up confusing myself. Remind me not to do this again.
Back to this review I need to finish, and then on to AFAA, yay! Now if only I could get off my ass and write this much for the AVCon.
Also random: while I was proofing this (which was a trial 'cos my bloody Internet kept timing out; God I'll be happy when our download space gets topped up again) I listened to 'Poor unfortunate souls', the version by The Jonas Brothers, and it amuses me every time I hear the line 'But they dote and swoon and fawn/on a lady who's withdrawn', because (in the version I've got anyway) he actually says, 'a lady's who withdrawn'. I srs.
I also just checked a lyrics site and the mistake is listed as the official lyric. What is this I don't even.
No?
Fine then.
I seem to have somehow become lugia*master's keeper. I'm not sure how that happened ... oh wait, that's right: he said he was writing a Lance story. In any case, twice today he's just told two authors to 'go read the rules and AFAA' without saying anything else, and constantly I feel the urge to stalk him and review everything he's looked at. We actually just had a conversation on a fic I was already reviewing (my second random review in two days, I'm so proud!) because he VMed the author and said something along the lines of, 'I don't mean to be rude, but you have no story worth noting here, so go read the rules and AFAA'. I objected, and yet our conversation was civil, although I note once again something I noticed during our 'conversation' in the fic ideas thread: the fact that he says something, and then later on says something else, and pretends that's what he's been saying all along. I don't know if it's just because he's horrible at expressing himself or just trying to save face, but I boggle at the fact that despite being a psychological whatsit, he still doesn't seem to grasp that he doesn't come across as particularly helpful or polite. And I promise I'll stop talking about him in my LJ now.
AFAA is nearly complete--the draft, anyway. The last bits are handwritten, and I still need to rifle through my editing textbooks to see exactly how you do use a semi-colon, but it should be done tonight my time so all you lovely people can tear it apart during your daytime. I think it's going to top 50,000 characters, so Pur is sad, because that means she has to struggle to cut something out so she can fit it all in one SPPf post. That and she's braindead, so she's not sure if half of what she's said makes sense or is even relevant.
EDIT: I lied; AFAA will be up sometime tomorrow my time, and at night for you guys. My brain is dead; I can't think. I also fucking hate grammar.
I'm also really really happy: last semester for one of my Honours classes we had a lot of discussion on writing and how we do it and all that shit. There was some lecture for Honours students on motivation and whatnot, which I didn't go to 'cos I'm lazy like that (also it's on the other side of the damn city) but a couple of the others did and reported back about it. One of the things they did stress was that the lecturers advocated setting aside an hour for writing everyday--kind of like NaNo. No editing, just write as much as you can for that hour. I've heard that kind of thing before, but it wasn't until we were discussing it in class and other people were trying it that I really felt the urge to, or felt I even could. I tried a couple times during the semester and failed most times--I typed up 1500 words on computer in doing it once, but it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. So I experimented a little and discovered my problem: I have a short attention span. Which is an incredibly depressing thought seeing as how I used to gobble books up and nowadays hardly pick one up 'cos I just can't seem to want to stick with them (but I'm reading plenty of manga and fanfiction instead! I mean ...) So anyway, the point is that I can't type steadily for an hour on my laptop 'cos I get distracted by things like the Internet or Solitaire (my highest score is upwards of 17,000 points in about 40 seconds in three-card dealing Solitaire. No joke.). I can't sit at home and handwrite 'cos then I just get something to eat or listen to music or or or--just about anything else.
Solution? GET OUTTA THE DAMN HOUSE. So I did. My favourite haunt is Gloria Jeans', which is an Aussie chain of coffeeshops, 'cos they have the best hot chocolate, but the nearest one is 45 minutes walk and I don't have a car (or, y'know, a proper licence) yet. If I go through the city then I always take an hour out and go into the Gloria Jeans' in Borders (my absolute favourite place of all time. Aside from the local anime/manga store. And my actual house.), but as I only have one class this semester and it only meets three times in 13 weeks, that doesn't leave much chance for going through the city. I could make special trips in, but train tickets cost nearly $16 for ten two-hour trips (and that's only the off-peak hour tickets; the all-hour ones cost nearly $30 for the same), and I was recently turned down for a job so I'd rather not spare the money until I find someplace else to shanghai into hiring me (a tough prospect considering my lack of experience).
But, there is an all-night coffeeshop/Subway/general store less than twenty minutes' walk away from my house. It's not Gloria Jeans, so not much in the way of atmosphere, but it's got massive windows and really comfy chairs, and the walk is a perfect length (I'm actually getting exercise!). Although it's been there for ages, I never really went into it until recently, and once I knew it was there I had someplace to go to and write more often (before, I was going to a park, which sucked 'cos it's winter and cold and rainy and so I didn't get out as often as I should have). I've actually been going out everyday for nearly three weeks to write (barring one day when I was feeling too depressed to get out of the house). And because it's public, it means I can't do something like, oh, stare at my page for an hour (yes, I have actually and can actually do that with frightening ease) without looking like an idiot--making social mores work for you FTW!
Anyway, the moral of the story is that once I had someplace to haunt, I've been writing like crazy--I'm amazed at how quickly things are being written (edited, on the other hand ...). For instance, I have a 'sekrit project', which is basically just a one-shot, but it's a long one-shot, 'cos it's deliberately in four parts. I wrote the thing in about ten days; 63 handwritten pages and upwards of 14000 words. I haven't actually typed it up yet, but when I first started this writing-hour thing I was writing about 5 pages a day, which, when I typed them up, equalled about 1100 words (nowadays I write an average of 6 pages--and actually getting into 7 lately--the former of which is about 1300 words). 12 sets of 1100 words and three extra loose pages--about 650 words?--yeah, about 14000. I miss that story. Now I'm scrambling to get my head around some of my other ones. Either way, I can't wait 'til NaNo.
So that's how I'm dealing with my writer's block. The bigger problem is actually editing everything with expediency; the sequel to 'The good fight', 'The mighty fallen', is written and just needs to be edited (which is a slight problem 'cos I'm all but rewriting some scenes) and I'm currently writing the missing scene for 'The good fight'. I tried to get a start on 'The fools' paradise' but I discovered that I don't actually know as much about how it begins as I do about how it ends, so that stalled on me until I can figure out details (because I kept on rewriting the beginning and I still didn't know what the fuck was happening). I also tried to get a start on the next chapter of 'Choice and Consequence', but that is an epic, massive battle between three sides, only one of which is willing to help one of the others, and the total number of combatants equals seven, each of whom have multiple pokemon. I spent most of that hour just trying to go step-by-step through the whole bloody thing--I did manage to get a start on it, and figured out that five of the seven battlers will only use two of their pokemon and the last two will only use one, and I also think I know my writing style for it--BUT IT'S STILL FUCKING SCARY AND SHIT I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING SO GONNA FAIL THIS SCENE WAAAHH.
I may need mind-maps. And even then I think I'll just end up confusing myself. Remind me not to do this again.
Back to this review I need to finish, and then on to AFAA, yay! Now if only I could get off my ass and write this much for the AVCon.
Also random: while I was proofing this (which was a trial 'cos my bloody Internet kept timing out; God I'll be happy when our download space gets topped up again) I listened to 'Poor unfortunate souls', the version by The Jonas Brothers, and it amuses me every time I hear the line 'But they dote and swoon and fawn/on a lady who's withdrawn', because (in the version I've got anyway) he actually says, 'a lady's who withdrawn'. I srs.
I also just checked a lyrics site and the mistake is listed as the official lyric. What is this I don't even.