it is all too easy to get wrapped up in ones own little world of triumphs and setbacks.
always remember... any effort, any set towards creativity is in and of itself an accomplishment. The self-censor is the hardest obstacle of all.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
[drift] Behold, Fans: The once-secret wellspring of Kent's inspiration [/drift]
It all makes sense now...
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
Oh, I suck at the rules about commas (and parenthetical asides in the middle of sentences, obviously).
I loathe passive voice. It's so common in today's media. 'Mistakes were made, but we aren't gonna name names, 'cause that would be rude to say that Bob Robertson of 14 West Palermo Drive was the one that cost the company 500 million dollars on that Ponzi scheme.'
Registered: Aug 2006
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Set:
I have a love-hate relationship with the passive voice. Exceeded only by my love-hate relationship with slash.
[gets out six-pack to cry into]
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
What? You'd think a GnR fan would be happy. Don't they have a new CD out?
As for those eleven rules, if I followed the last one I'd never write anything at all.
..and I have a copy of an even worse movie: Batman vs Star Trek. Awesomely cheesy.
From: Smallville Sector : Greater Metropolis | Registered: Jun 2004
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Yk, I hate it when the men have longer, more lustrous hair than I do. Or something.
Y'know, there's also a Batman musical where The Joker tries to pick up Alfred on Facebook. Now that's entertainment!
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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quote:Originally posted by cleome: [drift] Behold, Fans: The once-secret wellspring of Kent's inspiration [/drift]
It all makes sense now...
Cleo... you were NOT supposed to tell!
so much for the surprise ending of Legion of Camelot now...
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Dude, next time I lend you fifty cents for a Powerball ticket and you win, don't renege on giving me my half of the spoils. I'm just sayin'...
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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I bought a Power Girl ticket... I really didn't think you'd swing that way to get your half of the spoils.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Sorry. My swing is in the shop being repainted. Or something.
Hey, now. This article is full of fantastic advice. Am I the only fanfic writer left on the net who has yet to craft a threesome featuring two characters from different universes doing unspeakable things to/with a toaster oven?
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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I was in a writer's group a few years back, and we generally had an excellent ensemble... but one time this one woman showed up reading something really bad, something that aspired to be a trashy romance novel but wasn't good enough to be even that. She wasn't invited back. Those rules reminded me of that woman's story, although it wasn't fanfic (at least, not of pre-existing characters. maybe fanfic of romance novel stereotypical characters).
in my view, "bad" and "fanfic" don't have to go hand-in-hand. look at all the bad poetry almost anyone ages 15-20 writes.
it takes trial and effort to write well, of course, but it also takes criticism - of self and others. Enthusiasm alone does not replace craft/skill... look at the vast majority of Christian rock.
keep at it, folks. practice, practice, practice. Don't be discouraged by less-than-gushing feedback, but do heed it and learn from it. See it as a challenge, not a barrier.
From: Vancouver, BC, Canada | Registered: Dec 2003
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Oy. Romance novels. I used to have an HM who wanted to make money writing those things. She bought all the manuals and a huge stack of the books themselves. Lord help me, I would actually read some of the damn things to shut my brains off after a hard day's work, because I was on swingshift at work; unlike every last one of my friends. This was before anyone outside the military had ever heard of the internets, so socializing was pretty much out of the question.
Anyway, in accordance with Sturgeon's Theory, I did eventually stumble upon some tiny fraction of these books that were not total crap. Oh, they still had all the expected tropes: sex every thirty pages. Good girl + Bad man. Nice guy who hangs around for awhile as a place-marker and then gets killed so the now Saved By Love Bad Man can come back. Everyone's royalty because that's what we all wanna' read about. Etc.
The saving graces of the books that weren't total crap had to do with the overall quality of the writing. Somebody putting their back into the historical research instead of just talking about gowns and jewels ad nauseum. The occasional acknowledgment that there were some people around that worked with their hands, and maybe they had lives, too. Even --gasp!-- some perfectly nice people not attracted to the opposite sex or, --double gasp!-- not interested in sex at all. A sense of realism as to how people age (and occasionally mature) and how it changes their outlook on love/sex and blah blah blah.
So, yeah, it can be done. Whether or not it can be done profitably by even occasionally slipping nourishment into the candy dish (as a scant few romance authors do) is a whole 'nother issue. At least with fanfic, the profit motive is eliminated and you don't have to give a flying rat's ass about that part.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
For instance, I was reminded today that it's actually okay to interchange "toward" and "towards." Also "franticly" and "frantically," no matter what your spell-checker says. So I felt a little less inept. That's always nice.
Also, I've started perusing some of the fic-watch boards on LJ, but I'm not sure if I'll start linking to them or not. The how-not-to-write-about-sex one, for instance, kind of broke my brain on Saturday. I'm still recovering.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
I consider myself a decent writer but i always welcome links and tips to become even better.
I have seen so many stories with tons of grammar and spelling errors and they vary so much in degree. Spellcheck functions are ok but often sort of blind to some errors, so a manual spellcheck after that is often advisable and it's also good to have a beta reader or two.
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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