I is bored! (how hard is it to tell?)
Swiped from yma2, because when I've got the writing bug but not quite enough impetus to really push me over the edge into full-blown writer-zone, the second-best thing is to ramble on about my own writing... without actually doing it. Writers are lazy bastards by nature, I think, and a little egocentricity is required of anyone who decides to devote a large part of their lives to playing God with people who don't exist. *innocent whistling*
Writer's Meme: Sometimes it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top 5-10 favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most.
In no particular order...
And Love, Again
Fandom: The His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Why? I like to cling to this story as proof that I'm doing the right thing with my life. That no matter what anyone else says, I need to be writing, and I need to be writing about people, just... people as they are, and why they are, and who they are, without anything else, because nothing else is stronger. I wrote this when I was 13 and it is still the one story of mine that consistently gets comments every few months. And it was quoted in an article (published in another country) written by a man who interviewed Tolkien. This is my first baby, and oh, has she made me proud.
Earth to Earth
Fandom: Trigun
Why? Oh God. Everything. I reread this story and I relive my life, through two cities, three homes, homeschool, high school, college, countless friends and acquaintances and fandoms and life-changing books and ideas, through deaths and births and hospitalizations -- for reasons both physical and mental. Same with the canon itself: episode 1 was the first anime I laid eyes on, and chapter 100 was my most recent manga download. Maybe the reason I can't get it to end is because it would be a little like killing myself. Also, besides a couple of very short one-shots, I have never written anything else in the fandom.
Still Life With Circuitry
Fandom: Harry Potter
Why? It's adorable. I don't think anything else I've ever written can honestly claim that.
Stone & Home
Fandom: Myst
Why? Because it's a hideously underrepresented fandom, especially in the area of good fic, not just every writer-wannabe writing their own "journal" of exploring the various worlds (almost never at the same quality seen in the games themselves). And these two stories (which I never separate, so it's not really cheating to put them together, right? eheh... er) are the best examples of pure character study that I have ever done. No pretenses, no elaboration. Just two men trapped in their own hells. What created them, and what continues to shape them? An attempted answer to those questions in a few skeleton paragraphs.
The Quality of Mercy
Fandom: Kingdom of Heaven/historical fiction
Why? I've decided that I like to call this historical fiction as much as anything, because even though it take the silver mask and a little bit of dialogue from the movie, it really is much more of an attempt to open myself to history in the only way I know how: to let voices speak through me. And they're not anything like the voices of the real historical figures, but that isn't what matters. What matters is the knowledge of being transported in time. Of understanding what Jerusalem is worth. Nothing. Everything.
Bootstrap's Bootstraps
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Why? This was SO HARD! And even though some of the sentences are structurally awkward because I just couldn't pare them down enough (I am not a minimalist by nature, by ANY means), I just adored the concept of the challenge and I really think I did a good job. Plus, the whole exercise taught me so ridiculously much about how to write a sentence. Not a story: a sentence.
The War Prayer
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Why? This. Thing. Hurt. So. Much. Coming. Out. And I feel as bad as a writer for displaying it as I would as a mother for putting the remains of my bloody napalm-smeared child in a jar of formaldehyde and displaying it in a war museum. But as structurally flawed as I think it is, I think there are things in it that needed to be said, and need to be repeated in this world, loudly and often, until the human race gets the gory picture. It isn't something I really want to push people to read, because there's really no enjoyment to get out of reading it. But it was a catharsis for me that I'll never forget, and I think I changed as a person in the course of creating it. There's a form of love in that.
For I Speak Not Loud Or Long
Fandom: Last Exile
Why? I took a fandom I really loved, that had a very distinct atmosphere and setting, and I finally do believe that I successfully recreated it. In the case of all of these Fanfic100 LE claim ideas, actually, I think I have finally achieved my ultimate goal of fully commandeering a fictional world and steering it down my own paths. I also achieved another of my goals, which was to successfully take a character who is widely misunderstood -- or not understood at all -- and defined him in such a way that more than one reader finally "got" him. (*huggles poor Lucciola -- expressionless doesn't equal emotionless*)
The Illusion of Truth
Fandom: Harry Potter
Why? My peace offering to a war-torn fandom: HET, SLASH AND -- SHOCKOFSHOCKS! -- GEN CAN COEXIST SANS PETTY INFIGHTING. I KNOW IT IS HARD TO ACCEPT, BUT... SUCK IT UP. Also, I think this comes in as a close runner-up on the "adorable" front. It's a complicated relationship to pin down and I think I got it, with just the right mix of light and gloomy.
----------
I went to a peace vigil tonight. It was simple but effective -- there was laughter and kind words between strangers, and then they handed out pages of names of soldiers killed and invited everyone to read the names aloud. So there was an ongoing, overlapping, surreal chorus of every voice and volume reading these names, and they went on, and on... Ashlei and I got a page. I still have it. I may put it up on my wall, as a reminder: these are the people whose lost lives give meaning to my little liberal soul.
There was a brisk wind, but Ashlei and I kept a candle lit for the whole time, and since we'd brought a pillar candle of our own that was sturdier than the little mini tapers they handed out, lots of people came to us for a light instead of waiting for the matches to come around. I was happy about that. (And we were very picturesque, guarding the flame, so we'll probably be in the local paper tomorrow. ^_^.)
I'm excited about MidSouthCon, through all the crazy amounts of work I have to do this week because I won't have a weekend to work in, and despite the costs of hotel and gas and the issues inherent in trying to decide whose car is less likely to break down on the way. Despite the unfinished costumes and the prospect of a carbocandyarian (or caffienecarbocandyarian, if Rain will permit me to alter her new favorite word) diet for three days straight. It's been a full year since my last convention, and even though MidSouth is teeny tiny, I adore it and I can't wait to get back in a building full of fellow nerds, just communing in their nerddom, like hippies with Klingon foreheads. XD
(Also, ARGH HOLY SHIT it is SO VERY disturbing how much I look like a boy with my completed Light costume. Aieee! *flees* There will be pictures from this con, OH YES THERE WILL.)
Costume stats (like anyone cares): Only doing Light (Death Note) and Hige (Wolf's Rain), and will die of a heat stroke from both, I'm sure. (Hige=sweatpants, longsleeved tee, and hoodie? Crowded building full of sweaty fanboys? I die now.) Everything's done except Hige's collar and the handcuffs for Light and L. (Sounds like a bondage-happy costume repertoire this year, doesn't it?) All hail the Salvation Army: I got a men's white shirt and the right color of sports coat for Light for $10 total. Also borrowed Mom's straightener of the 400˚F setting of DOOM.
And now I have run out of things to ramble about, so I guess I should actually work on a story or even, omgshockandhorror!, do homework.
off to find other forms of procrastination,
-rave
Writer's Meme: Sometimes it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top 5-10 favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most.
In no particular order...
And Love, Again
Fandom: The His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Why? I like to cling to this story as proof that I'm doing the right thing with my life. That no matter what anyone else says, I need to be writing, and I need to be writing about people, just... people as they are, and why they are, and who they are, without anything else, because nothing else is stronger. I wrote this when I was 13 and it is still the one story of mine that consistently gets comments every few months. And it was quoted in an article (published in another country) written by a man who interviewed Tolkien. This is my first baby, and oh, has she made me proud.
Earth to Earth
Fandom: Trigun
Why? Oh God. Everything. I reread this story and I relive my life, through two cities, three homes, homeschool, high school, college, countless friends and acquaintances and fandoms and life-changing books and ideas, through deaths and births and hospitalizations -- for reasons both physical and mental. Same with the canon itself: episode 1 was the first anime I laid eyes on, and chapter 100 was my most recent manga download. Maybe the reason I can't get it to end is because it would be a little like killing myself. Also, besides a couple of very short one-shots, I have never written anything else in the fandom.
Still Life With Circuitry
Fandom: Harry Potter
Why? It's adorable. I don't think anything else I've ever written can honestly claim that.
Stone & Home
Fandom: Myst
Why? Because it's a hideously underrepresented fandom, especially in the area of good fic, not just every writer-wannabe writing their own "journal" of exploring the various worlds (almost never at the same quality seen in the games themselves). And these two stories (which I never separate, so it's not really cheating to put them together, right? eheh... er) are the best examples of pure character study that I have ever done. No pretenses, no elaboration. Just two men trapped in their own hells. What created them, and what continues to shape them? An attempted answer to those questions in a few skeleton paragraphs.
The Quality of Mercy
Fandom: Kingdom of Heaven/historical fiction
Why? I've decided that I like to call this historical fiction as much as anything, because even though it take the silver mask and a little bit of dialogue from the movie, it really is much more of an attempt to open myself to history in the only way I know how: to let voices speak through me. And they're not anything like the voices of the real historical figures, but that isn't what matters. What matters is the knowledge of being transported in time. Of understanding what Jerusalem is worth. Nothing. Everything.
Bootstrap's Bootstraps
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Why? This was SO HARD! And even though some of the sentences are structurally awkward because I just couldn't pare them down enough (I am not a minimalist by nature, by ANY means), I just adored the concept of the challenge and I really think I did a good job. Plus, the whole exercise taught me so ridiculously much about how to write a sentence. Not a story: a sentence.
The War Prayer
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Why? This. Thing. Hurt. So. Much. Coming. Out. And I feel as bad as a writer for displaying it as I would as a mother for putting the remains of my bloody napalm-smeared child in a jar of formaldehyde and displaying it in a war museum. But as structurally flawed as I think it is, I think there are things in it that needed to be said, and need to be repeated in this world, loudly and often, until the human race gets the gory picture. It isn't something I really want to push people to read, because there's really no enjoyment to get out of reading it. But it was a catharsis for me that I'll never forget, and I think I changed as a person in the course of creating it. There's a form of love in that.
For I Speak Not Loud Or Long
Fandom: Last Exile
Why? I took a fandom I really loved, that had a very distinct atmosphere and setting, and I finally do believe that I successfully recreated it. In the case of all of these Fanfic100 LE claim ideas, actually, I think I have finally achieved my ultimate goal of fully commandeering a fictional world and steering it down my own paths. I also achieved another of my goals, which was to successfully take a character who is widely misunderstood -- or not understood at all -- and defined him in such a way that more than one reader finally "got" him. (*huggles poor Lucciola -- expressionless doesn't equal emotionless*)
The Illusion of Truth
Fandom: Harry Potter
Why? My peace offering to a war-torn fandom: HET, SLASH AND -- SHOCKOFSHOCKS! -- GEN CAN COEXIST SANS PETTY INFIGHTING. I KNOW IT IS HARD TO ACCEPT, BUT... SUCK IT UP. Also, I think this comes in as a close runner-up on the "adorable" front. It's a complicated relationship to pin down and I think I got it, with just the right mix of light and gloomy.
----------
I went to a peace vigil tonight. It was simple but effective -- there was laughter and kind words between strangers, and then they handed out pages of names of soldiers killed and invited everyone to read the names aloud. So there was an ongoing, overlapping, surreal chorus of every voice and volume reading these names, and they went on, and on... Ashlei and I got a page. I still have it. I may put it up on my wall, as a reminder: these are the people whose lost lives give meaning to my little liberal soul.
There was a brisk wind, but Ashlei and I kept a candle lit for the whole time, and since we'd brought a pillar candle of our own that was sturdier than the little mini tapers they handed out, lots of people came to us for a light instead of waiting for the matches to come around. I was happy about that. (And we were very picturesque, guarding the flame, so we'll probably be in the local paper tomorrow. ^_^.)
I'm excited about MidSouthCon, through all the crazy amounts of work I have to do this week because I won't have a weekend to work in, and despite the costs of hotel and gas and the issues inherent in trying to decide whose car is less likely to break down on the way. Despite the unfinished costumes and the prospect of a carbocandyarian (or caffienecarbocandyarian, if Rain will permit me to alter her new favorite word) diet for three days straight. It's been a full year since my last convention, and even though MidSouth is teeny tiny, I adore it and I can't wait to get back in a building full of fellow nerds, just communing in their nerddom, like hippies with Klingon foreheads. XD
(Also, ARGH HOLY SHIT it is SO VERY disturbing how much I look like a boy with my completed Light costume. Aieee! *flees* There will be pictures from this con, OH YES THERE WILL.)
Costume stats (like anyone cares): Only doing Light (Death Note) and Hige (Wolf's Rain), and will die of a heat stroke from both, I'm sure. (Hige=sweatpants, longsleeved tee, and hoodie? Crowded building full of sweaty fanboys? I die now.) Everything's done except Hige's collar and the handcuffs for Light and L. (Sounds like a bondage-happy costume repertoire this year, doesn't it?) All hail the Salvation Army: I got a men's white shirt and the right color of sports coat for Light for $10 total. Also borrowed Mom's straightener of the 400˚F setting of DOOM.
And now I have run out of things to ramble about, so I guess I should actually work on a story or even, omgshockandhorror!, do homework.
off to find other forms of procrastination,
-rave