A Collection of Only Marginally Related Fannish and Writing Items
When You Need To Do Something Right
If you ever feel like you need to have someone tell you you've done something right, I can't suggest a more effective way than writing something for an anonymous fic meme. I wrote four last week (some at anon_lovefest, some at jbkinkmeme), and it was awesome. First of all, writing anonymously meant I didn't feel the same pressure to write something good. Secondly, I didn't think the first two I did were particularly good, and yet people really liked them, and feedback for anonymous fic turns out to be more of a thrill than feedback for other fic. Thirdly, one of the things I wrote was perhaps the most fun thing to write ever (and I fell in love with it and might claim and post it here too).
Academic Overtraining, or, In Which I Want Sources Cited
The Bandom overview at crack_van says, "Bandom was built on the backs of a million picspams and primers," which seems to be true, and I've read quite a few now. But a primer is not, itself, a source, and I find myself annoyed when they don't cite their sources. I greatly appreciate riorhapsody's The Academy Is... Ridiculous Primer for citing sources. I may have spent too much time writing papers in my college days. (To be honest with you, I'm so committed to proper source citations that I was really tempted to footnote " Not Ever" with the sources for each actual event in the story.)
Serious Gabe Saporta Is Serious (And Hot)
One of the best things about Cobra Starship's album coming out next week is that they're doing a lot of interviews. There are two I've liked recently because they have Gabe being serious about music, which is awesome. First is this one from MTV, which is better if you watch the video than if you read it because the content is not as interesting as Gabe and Alex's attitudes. I love how excited Gabe gets about the interviewer picking up on the influences in their music. (He misses one, though - when they're talking about the oohs on "Fold Your Hands Child," Gabe says that's all Ryland, which, duh! It's totally This Is Ivy League.) Secondly, Gabe and Ryland did an oddly serious interview with MySpace Music. I mean, really, who's serious when talking to MySpace Music? One of the interesting moments is that he's not just serious about music - he talks about "selling out" and says, "The whole concept of selling out is completely nonsensical and asinine in a capitalist system. That's a bigger question." Smart is so sexy.
Christian Kane, I Still Love You Best
John Rogers is doing weekly Leverage Q&As, and in the one about last week's ep, he told us:Eliot as a teddy bear? No. But Chris is both great with kids, and works well with kid actors (kudos to our guest star for this week, he was really fantastic). And kids basically treat Chris like Batman.
My life needs eighty thousand adorable Chris-with-kids fics now. (I was just reading through unfinished/unposted fic on my hard drive this week, and I have two. But someone else should write some.)
On Writing About Music and Musicians
I always feel inadequate when I try to write about music - which is problematic since my fandoms of the moment are all musician-based. I don't really know much about music, although I have gotten much better at finding/counting the beat in a piece of music. I end up not writing much about music itself or the making of it. I keep thinking that if I'm writing about people who define their lives by music, then I should write about music, too, at least in relation to their lives, but I don't know what I'm doing.
On Writing Self-Indulgently
It seems like everything I write these days is horribly self-indulgent. But then I keep catching myself and thinking, hey, isn't all fan fic essentially self indulgent? Isn't the great thing about fan fic that we don't have to deal with the setup and blahblahblah and get to skip straight to the fun parts? And so what if my current fun parts are all overblown romanticism and cuddling?
Panic! Split: The Story I Most Want
I want someone to write the Panic! origin story where it's all about how much Spencer loves music (and maybe also Brendon). I keep thinking that the fanon mythology (as gathered from reading fic) is all about how Spencer loves Ryan, and that the band was about getting Ryan, and then Brendon, what they want/need, but it's never about Spencer wanting the band and music for their own sake.
Panic! Split: Rec
What would a roundup of fannish things sort of post be without a rec? The rec is overnighter's " Mise en Place," which is a Brendon/Spencer story. I should forewarn you that the first thing I left in my feedback comment was, "OUCH. (In a good way.)" It's well written, it has a hopeful ending, and she does an amazing job of giving Brendon emotional connections to food.
Feedback: Leaving and Reading
I've been trying to be better about leaving feedback in recent times. This is largely because I found myself sending recs or talking about fic and throwing out one-sentence reasons things were good, and then thinking, "I could tell the author that, too." Obviously authors like feedback, but I also wonder if other readers ever read feedback other people leave on a story. I do sometimes page down through the comments to see if anything jumps out at me, either in the comments or in who left them.
If you ever feel like you need to have someone tell you you've done something right, I can't suggest a more effective way than writing something for an anonymous fic meme. I wrote four last week (some at anon_lovefest, some at jbkinkmeme), and it was awesome. First of all, writing anonymously meant I didn't feel the same pressure to write something good. Secondly, I didn't think the first two I did were particularly good, and yet people really liked them, and feedback for anonymous fic turns out to be more of a thrill than feedback for other fic. Thirdly, one of the things I wrote was perhaps the most fun thing to write ever (and I fell in love with it and might claim and post it here too).
Academic Overtraining, or, In Which I Want Sources Cited
The Bandom overview at crack_van says, "Bandom was built on the backs of a million picspams and primers," which seems to be true, and I've read quite a few now. But a primer is not, itself, a source, and I find myself annoyed when they don't cite their sources. I greatly appreciate riorhapsody's The Academy Is... Ridiculous Primer for citing sources. I may have spent too much time writing papers in my college days. (To be honest with you, I'm so committed to proper source citations that I was really tempted to footnote " Not Ever" with the sources for each actual event in the story.)
Serious Gabe Saporta Is Serious (And Hot)
One of the best things about Cobra Starship's album coming out next week is that they're doing a lot of interviews. There are two I've liked recently because they have Gabe being serious about music, which is awesome. First is this one from MTV, which is better if you watch the video than if you read it because the content is not as interesting as Gabe and Alex's attitudes. I love how excited Gabe gets about the interviewer picking up on the influences in their music. (He misses one, though - when they're talking about the oohs on "Fold Your Hands Child," Gabe says that's all Ryland, which, duh! It's totally This Is Ivy League.) Secondly, Gabe and Ryland did an oddly serious interview with MySpace Music. I mean, really, who's serious when talking to MySpace Music? One of the interesting moments is that he's not just serious about music - he talks about "selling out" and says, "The whole concept of selling out is completely nonsensical and asinine in a capitalist system. That's a bigger question." Smart is so sexy.
Christian Kane, I Still Love You Best
John Rogers is doing weekly Leverage Q&As, and in the one about last week's ep, he told us:Eliot as a teddy bear? No. But Chris is both great with kids, and works well with kid actors (kudos to our guest star for this week, he was really fantastic). And kids basically treat Chris like Batman.
My life needs eighty thousand adorable Chris-with-kids fics now. (I was just reading through unfinished/unposted fic on my hard drive this week, and I have two. But someone else should write some.)
On Writing About Music and Musicians
I always feel inadequate when I try to write about music - which is problematic since my fandoms of the moment are all musician-based. I don't really know much about music, although I have gotten much better at finding/counting the beat in a piece of music. I end up not writing much about music itself or the making of it. I keep thinking that if I'm writing about people who define their lives by music, then I should write about music, too, at least in relation to their lives, but I don't know what I'm doing.
On Writing Self-Indulgently
It seems like everything I write these days is horribly self-indulgent. But then I keep catching myself and thinking, hey, isn't all fan fic essentially self indulgent? Isn't the great thing about fan fic that we don't have to deal with the setup and blahblahblah and get to skip straight to the fun parts? And so what if my current fun parts are all overblown romanticism and cuddling?
Panic! Split: The Story I Most Want
I want someone to write the Panic! origin story where it's all about how much Spencer loves music (and maybe also Brendon). I keep thinking that the fanon mythology (as gathered from reading fic) is all about how Spencer loves Ryan, and that the band was about getting Ryan, and then Brendon, what they want/need, but it's never about Spencer wanting the band and music for their own sake.
Panic! Split: Rec
What would a roundup of fannish things sort of post be without a rec? The rec is overnighter's " Mise en Place," which is a Brendon/Spencer story. I should forewarn you that the first thing I left in my feedback comment was, "OUCH. (In a good way.)" It's well written, it has a hopeful ending, and she does an amazing job of giving Brendon emotional connections to food.
Feedback: Leaving and Reading
I've been trying to be better about leaving feedback in recent times. This is largely because I found myself sending recs or talking about fic and throwing out one-sentence reasons things were good, and then thinking, "I could tell the author that, too." Obviously authors like feedback, but I also wonder if other readers ever read feedback other people leave on a story. I do sometimes page down through the comments to see if anything jumps out at me, either in the comments or in who left them.