Thoughts on my writing
A while ago, there was a meme asking about posts that anyone new to a journal should read to get a taste of what's inside. I've recently been thinking about this again, especially as it relates to my fic writing and how I define myself as a writer.
This post is supposed to explain a bit about how I see my writing and what attitude you can expect from me in regard to my own writing, and also to a degree an explanation on how I react to other people's writing, I guess.
"Yes, I hate orthodox criticism. I don't mean great criticism, like that of Matthew Arnold and others, but the usual small niggling, fussy-mussy criticism, which thinks it can improve people by telling them where they are wrong, and results only in putting them in straitjackets of hesitancy and self-conciousness, and weazening all vision and bravery."
Brenda Ueland, If You Want To Write: Releasing Your Creative Spirit
Roughly said, I distinguish between two levels in my writing.
There's the whole plot-heavy, story-telling portion of it that involves much planning, thinking and fairly thoughtful editing. A Long Forgotten Kiss is probably the most important example for this. This is fic that's very dear to me and that I spend a lot of time on, both writing and "just" thinking.
At the other side of the scale, there are the one-shots and PWPs, short-ish pieces that are written on a whim, get a quick beta and are posted purely for entertainment. a lot of my fanfic100 ficlets fall into this category, but not all of them.
My reasons for writing vary too. I write PWPs and porn, because I enjoy reading it and am always looking for new stuff to read myself. I figure if I'm always looking for more, then so are others, so I write in the hopes that others will do the same.
The basic fact is: I enjoy writing. I like to play with words, take characters and let them have fun, and I post because someone else might enjoy reading what I come up with. That doesn't mean I want my fic to be "high literature" or anything more ambitious than making someone smile or say "reading that wasn't a waste of time". It's entertainment, basically.
And if someone doesn't like my fic, because it isn't to their taste, then that's fine too. Just don't complain to me about it, because there's nothing I can do about taste. Everyone likes different tings.
Personally, I read fiction (be it fan fiction, or the kind you buy in a bookstore) to entertain myself and feel good. It's escapism for me, pure and simple. This means I'm not a big fan of angst or dark fiction. I don't want to be reminded of Real Life™ problems when I read fiction. This is probably the main reason why I prefer fantasy to any other literary genre.
This means you're not very likely to find much angsty or darker fic in here (I think I've written maybe 2 or 3 proper angst/unhappy fics to date).
Most of my fic these days is porn or light fluff, with the occasional long-winded plot heavy story thrown in at very irregular intervals. I can do either porn or plot, but both in the same fic is a huge struggle for some reason. I'm also convinced I don't do plot well, but that's a different story.
Oh, I should probably also mention that anything that has more than one chapter is bound to contain cliff-hangers at the end of nearly every part. And no, that's not because I like to tease my readers (though I sure enjoy that effect), it's purely so that I can continue writing instead of deciding to just stop n the middle of the story.
So that's why I write what I write.
Take it as you will, but if you want to give me concrit on any of my writing, please do it in private via email. Concrit has been a heavily argued topic in all fandoms, and my basic stance is that public concrit never achieves anything, it just makes the author either angry or stops them writing completely because of doubts about their ability.
A huge part of concrit seems to be about matters of taste these days. And for me, concrit on a piece that was never meant to be anything but light entertainment, or a bit of hot PWP, is just pointless waste of time. If it's structural, grammatical or technical ("that position is impossible for the most flexible human beings"), then that's fine, but everything else is likely to get no reaction whatsoever. De gustibus non est disputandum, or however that Latin phrase goes…
This post is supposed to explain a bit about how I see my writing and what attitude you can expect from me in regard to my own writing, and also to a degree an explanation on how I react to other people's writing, I guess.
"Yes, I hate orthodox criticism. I don't mean great criticism, like that of Matthew Arnold and others, but the usual small niggling, fussy-mussy criticism, which thinks it can improve people by telling them where they are wrong, and results only in putting them in straitjackets of hesitancy and self-conciousness, and weazening all vision and bravery."
Brenda Ueland, If You Want To Write: Releasing Your Creative Spirit
Roughly said, I distinguish between two levels in my writing.
There's the whole plot-heavy, story-telling portion of it that involves much planning, thinking and fairly thoughtful editing. A Long Forgotten Kiss is probably the most important example for this. This is fic that's very dear to me and that I spend a lot of time on, both writing and "just" thinking.
At the other side of the scale, there are the one-shots and PWPs, short-ish pieces that are written on a whim, get a quick beta and are posted purely for entertainment. a lot of my fanfic100 ficlets fall into this category, but not all of them.
My reasons for writing vary too. I write PWPs and porn, because I enjoy reading it and am always looking for new stuff to read myself. I figure if I'm always looking for more, then so are others, so I write in the hopes that others will do the same.
The basic fact is: I enjoy writing. I like to play with words, take characters and let them have fun, and I post because someone else might enjoy reading what I come up with. That doesn't mean I want my fic to be "high literature" or anything more ambitious than making someone smile or say "reading that wasn't a waste of time". It's entertainment, basically.
And if someone doesn't like my fic, because it isn't to their taste, then that's fine too. Just don't complain to me about it, because there's nothing I can do about taste. Everyone likes different tings.
Personally, I read fiction (be it fan fiction, or the kind you buy in a bookstore) to entertain myself and feel good. It's escapism for me, pure and simple. This means I'm not a big fan of angst or dark fiction. I don't want to be reminded of Real Life™ problems when I read fiction. This is probably the main reason why I prefer fantasy to any other literary genre.
This means you're not very likely to find much angsty or darker fic in here (I think I've written maybe 2 or 3 proper angst/unhappy fics to date).
Most of my fic these days is porn or light fluff, with the occasional long-winded plot heavy story thrown in at very irregular intervals. I can do either porn or plot, but both in the same fic is a huge struggle for some reason. I'm also convinced I don't do plot well, but that's a different story.
Oh, I should probably also mention that anything that has more than one chapter is bound to contain cliff-hangers at the end of nearly every part. And no, that's not because I like to tease my readers (though I sure enjoy that effect), it's purely so that I can continue writing instead of deciding to just stop n the middle of the story.
So that's why I write what I write.
Take it as you will, but if you want to give me concrit on any of my writing, please do it in private via email. Concrit has been a heavily argued topic in all fandoms, and my basic stance is that public concrit never achieves anything, it just makes the author either angry or stops them writing completely because of doubts about their ability.
A huge part of concrit seems to be about matters of taste these days. And for me, concrit on a piece that was never meant to be anything but light entertainment, or a bit of hot PWP, is just pointless waste of time. If it's structural, grammatical or technical ("that position is impossible for the most flexible human beings"), then that's fine, but everything else is likely to get no reaction whatsoever. De gustibus non est disputandum, or however that Latin phrase goes…