(no subject)
So this is another day where I have no business writing posts, and so, of course, I shall.
Things I've been meaning to post for the last, oh, eternity and a half:
1. froggyfun365 has recorded four of my stories, and beyond the fact that omg podfics the world is made of awesome, her reading is amazing. She gave each of them a different feel, and each works so well with the story. I'm just... absolutely thrilled about these (and have been for all the time it took me to do this).
The only thing I'm sad about here is that my fic tends to be so short; each of these is under 10 minutes. On the other hand, when I try to write epics, well, see lj cut.
Gather Up Our Hearts (Inception, Mal), this untitled bit of Draco/Ron ridiculousness (much funnier in podfic form!), In the Beginning (Bible, Eve), and Shall Set You Free (White Collar, June). Also, \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/
2.
Last year, I did purimgifts for the very first time. Purimgifts is a low-pressure exchange; you write three stories, each 300 words minimum, 1,000 words maximum (and three graphics, but I'm the master of horrible photomanips, and don't really worry about such things.)
I really enjoyed it, got amazing stories written for me, and wrote two stories I was very pleased with and one that was, you know, kind of funny. I also panicked and ignored schoolwork and went omg deadline why, why, which I'm told is the traditional approach to these things.
On top of all that, I also wrote about 4,000 words about the people of Leverage and White Collar being underground fighters against the biggest con of all, realized I'd need 3,000 words more and a few specific narrators who were neither women nor Jewish if I wanted it to make any sense, abandoned it in order to write new stories at the very last minute, and did my level best to drive Kael crazy. It was glorious. (Also, one day I really will finish that story.)
Later that year, I signed up for xover-exchange. It only asked for one story! I'd be able to pick whatever characters I wanted! (I 100% approve of purimgifts' concept, and I tend to write female characters a lot anyway, but the deadline panic wants what it wants.) I'd have a really long time to write the story! Nothing could go wrong.
Then I wrote, I don't even know, 7,000 words or so of Morgana and Jim Kirk leading an Inception team, including characters from every fandom my recipient asked for that I even vaguely knew, which also, incidentally, ended up being about the biggest con of all. (It was a different con. And slightly smaller.) Xover-exchange doesn't have a maximum word limit, but that turned out to be my downfall, because I really, really do.
In the end I went back to one of the many beginnings I'd abandoned before, wrote a story I ended up really pleased with at the last-minute-plus-some, ignored some schoolwork and tried some more to drive Kael (and everyone else I knew) crazy. It's nice to have traditions. Also, one day Morgana and Jim will absolutely drive dream bikes through the swamps, and although no one will ever want to read that, I'll be happy.
So for this year's purimgifts, I was wise and strong. Even though the mere mention of it made me write a Merlin/Inception/Fabulous Killjoys/Batman crossover at roga, I'd grown and come to know my limitations, and I knew deadlines were bad for me and all my crack would abandon me at the most crucial moment.
I still signed up as a pinch hitter, though, because one can always dream. And then I resisted some pinch hits because see re: wise and strong, and resisted some others because I didn't see them before someone else volunteered, and then resisted some more still because I'd already signed up to pinch hit for roga, oh wait.
It was still going to be okay, because purimgifts has a 300 word minimum limit (for each story, but still), and I was going through a write-like-wind phase. It was going to be fine. I'd misunderstood the lesson the universe was trying to teach me; clearly what it really wanted me to do was sign up for everything ever. This time I wouldn't write anything longer than 1,000 words, at all at all. Wise and strong!
And I didn't! It was very impressive. Instead I wrote a tiny Fabulous Killjoys story before realizing it didn't focus on the one female character there, and I wrote the beginning to a Discworld/AI/Bandom story before realizing it focused a lot on a non-female-non-Jewish character and a little on a Jewish character roga didn't actually ask for and just a little bit about my actual target, and I wrote one story I was horribly relieved about, since here was finally something that focused on a female character AND was under the maximum word limit AND made sense AND had an ending, but then I realized that oh whoops, I'd killed everyone and that's not buddies (at least, not in a holiday exchange).
En route to actually getting some stories done, just about on time (IIRC, it's possible I've repressed some things), I drove everybody I knew crazy some more, including roga, which is just not good form. Also, everything I wrote for the actual exchange ended up being a Gilmore Girls crossover; I'm still not completely sure how that happened.
Then I wrote a... whatever the purimgifts equivalent of a sock stuffer is... for sentientcitizen, and managed to write one whole ficlet and one beginning on the way that didn't fit either, thereby bringing my unusable word count for that ficathon to ridiculous plus infinity. It was a blast.
Current lesson learned from all of this: I need to start using my brain while I write.
tl;dr etc etc:
I gave one of those poor abandoned beginnings to roga as an extra gift, both as harassment compensation and because, um, two of the purimgifts stories I wrote for her didn't make that much sense. And then this happened, because apparently being utterly ridiculous in all ways has benefits.
Respectable Policework - It wasn't that Constables Lambert and Saporta were untrustworthy. It was just that Vimes didn't trust them.
The beginning is mine; the awesome magic that happens after is roga's. Discworld/AI RPF/bandom, but I'm pretty sure even just knowing one of these will make it hysterical. Just thinking about the desert makes me smile like a loon.
Things I've been meaning to post for the last, oh, eternity and a half:
1. froggyfun365 has recorded four of my stories, and beyond the fact that omg podfics the world is made of awesome, her reading is amazing. She gave each of them a different feel, and each works so well with the story. I'm just... absolutely thrilled about these (and have been for all the time it took me to do this).
The only thing I'm sad about here is that my fic tends to be so short; each of these is under 10 minutes. On the other hand, when I try to write epics, well, see lj cut.
Gather Up Our Hearts (Inception, Mal), this untitled bit of Draco/Ron ridiculousness (much funnier in podfic form!), In the Beginning (Bible, Eve), and Shall Set You Free (White Collar, June). Also, \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/
2.
Last year, I did purimgifts for the very first time. Purimgifts is a low-pressure exchange; you write three stories, each 300 words minimum, 1,000 words maximum (and three graphics, but I'm the master of horrible photomanips, and don't really worry about such things.)
I really enjoyed it, got amazing stories written for me, and wrote two stories I was very pleased with and one that was, you know, kind of funny. I also panicked and ignored schoolwork and went omg deadline why, why, which I'm told is the traditional approach to these things.
On top of all that, I also wrote about 4,000 words about the people of Leverage and White Collar being underground fighters against the biggest con of all, realized I'd need 3,000 words more and a few specific narrators who were neither women nor Jewish if I wanted it to make any sense, abandoned it in order to write new stories at the very last minute, and did my level best to drive Kael crazy. It was glorious. (Also, one day I really will finish that story.)
Later that year, I signed up for xover-exchange. It only asked for one story! I'd be able to pick whatever characters I wanted! (I 100% approve of purimgifts' concept, and I tend to write female characters a lot anyway, but the deadline panic wants what it wants.) I'd have a really long time to write the story! Nothing could go wrong.
Then I wrote, I don't even know, 7,000 words or so of Morgana and Jim Kirk leading an Inception team, including characters from every fandom my recipient asked for that I even vaguely knew, which also, incidentally, ended up being about the biggest con of all. (It was a different con. And slightly smaller.) Xover-exchange doesn't have a maximum word limit, but that turned out to be my downfall, because I really, really do.
In the end I went back to one of the many beginnings I'd abandoned before, wrote a story I ended up really pleased with at the last-minute-plus-some, ignored some schoolwork and tried some more to drive Kael (and everyone else I knew) crazy. It's nice to have traditions. Also, one day Morgana and Jim will absolutely drive dream bikes through the swamps, and although no one will ever want to read that, I'll be happy.
So for this year's purimgifts, I was wise and strong. Even though the mere mention of it made me write a Merlin/Inception/Fabulous Killjoys/Batman crossover at roga, I'd grown and come to know my limitations, and I knew deadlines were bad for me and all my crack would abandon me at the most crucial moment.
I still signed up as a pinch hitter, though, because one can always dream. And then I resisted some pinch hits because see re: wise and strong, and resisted some others because I didn't see them before someone else volunteered, and then resisted some more still because I'd already signed up to pinch hit for roga, oh wait.
It was still going to be okay, because purimgifts has a 300 word minimum limit (for each story, but still), and I was going through a write-like-wind phase. It was going to be fine. I'd misunderstood the lesson the universe was trying to teach me; clearly what it really wanted me to do was sign up for everything ever. This time I wouldn't write anything longer than 1,000 words, at all at all. Wise and strong!
And I didn't! It was very impressive. Instead I wrote a tiny Fabulous Killjoys story before realizing it didn't focus on the one female character there, and I wrote the beginning to a Discworld/AI/Bandom story before realizing it focused a lot on a non-female-non-Jewish character and a little on a Jewish character roga didn't actually ask for and just a little bit about my actual target, and I wrote one story I was horribly relieved about, since here was finally something that focused on a female character AND was under the maximum word limit AND made sense AND had an ending, but then I realized that oh whoops, I'd killed everyone and that's not buddies (at least, not in a holiday exchange).
En route to actually getting some stories done, just about on time (IIRC, it's possible I've repressed some things), I drove everybody I knew crazy some more, including roga, which is just not good form. Also, everything I wrote for the actual exchange ended up being a Gilmore Girls crossover; I'm still not completely sure how that happened.
Then I wrote a... whatever the purimgifts equivalent of a sock stuffer is... for sentientcitizen, and managed to write one whole ficlet and one beginning on the way that didn't fit either, thereby bringing my unusable word count for that ficathon to ridiculous plus infinity. It was a blast.
Current lesson learned from all of this: I need to start using my brain while I write.
tl;dr etc etc:
I gave one of those poor abandoned beginnings to roga as an extra gift, both as harassment compensation and because, um, two of the purimgifts stories I wrote for her didn't make that much sense. And then this happened, because apparently being utterly ridiculous in all ways has benefits.
Respectable Policework - It wasn't that Constables Lambert and Saporta were untrustworthy. It was just that Vimes didn't trust them.
The beginning is mine; the awesome magic that happens after is roga's. Discworld/AI RPF/bandom, but I'm pretty sure even just knowing one of these will make it hysterical. Just thinking about the desert makes me smile like a loon.