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Sunday, January 25th, 2009
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5:25 pm - Archiving
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Ok, where do people out there archive their Harry Potter fic?
Back in the misty beginnings of my fic writing, I worked with a beta that recommended The Petulant Poetess once I was (finally) done with my first story. I was intimidated by their standards and correction process, but the beta assured me that everyone got their work back riddled with errors and each of the seven chapters of that story was accepted with corrections of some sort.
As I wrote more and got more used to fandom, archives, and communities, I came to value TPP because it's not ship-based, and since I write all kinds of pairings, I could put all my stuff in one place. However, the process of getting archived there always drove me crazy on several levels. One, although most of the mods are very tactful and friendly, over the year and half I submitted, some have come off as condescending and made me feel like a failure as a person and a writer because I have trouble remembering whether compound predicates require a comma or not. Two, I just don't really believe that everything in a piece of Harry Potter fanfiction needs to be 100% formally grammatically correct. Some examples of this would include dialog-- who speaks with perfect grammar?-- and excessively formal stuff like using "one" instead of "you." I think it sounds goobery to say "Ginny thought it was a bad idea, but one never knew what would happen" instead of "you never knew" even though the first one is actually correct.
Basically, all this means that I've realized that archiving there makes fanfiction Not Fun. I worry about getting rejected, when I get rejected, I feel shitty, when I make corrections that I don't really agree with it makes me feel shitty. When I feel shitty, I stop writing and reading fic and avoid it. This is an issue with me. There are many people that archive there that apparently feel great about it, but I've realized that after a year and half, putting myself through that is just stupid. (Most people who are anxious fall into the trap of making themselves do things that they hate, because there's a prevailing attitude that you should "be tough" and just do things that you don't enjoy, or that subjecting yourself to things that don't bother people without anxiety is character building somehow.)
However, I do like archiving my work, and I liked having it all archived in one place. I have used Sychophant Hex a bit, but I found their separate sites for all those pairings annoying, and now that they've crammed the Malfoy and Weasley sites in with the general site, I'm even more confused about what goes where. I also have never really gotten a lot of feedback or response on stories I've archived there. So anyway, anyone out there have any ideas of other places?
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| Saturday, January 10th, 2009
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8:10 pm - Me.
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| Thursday, January 1st, 2009
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8:44 pm - A ton of recs.
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Ok, here are the recs that I mentioned posting o so long ago... most are from ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) smutty_claus but there's a few random things I've run across as well. They are in no particular order.
- The Four Faces Hermione Granger Wore While Fucking Draco Malfoy by Anon. Obviously, this is Draco/Hermione. This story has a creative premise, and I really liked the way it ended.
- The White Road by perverse_idyll. Snape/Harry, also Lily/Snape in a totally unconsummated sense, Lily/James. One day, comfortably set up in the afterlife, Lily Evans Potter switches on the telly and gets hooked on the Harry Potter show.
This is a fabulous story and I can't describe it in a way that would do it justice. I am going to yank the comment I left on it and repaste it here as it highlights what I really loved about it:
I really enjoy fic that both complies with canon and subverts it at the same time, and you took up the threads of existing details and wove them into something different while making it seem very believable.I also loved your characterization--you incorporated the standard bits we all know about the characters while pushing them past that and making them grow, especially Lily.
- Shh by Anon. James/Lily, James/Lily/Sirius. Under the Invisibility Cloak, Lily and James can do whatever they want without his friends seeing. Lily isn't sure she ought to like that quite so much.
Inventive smut. But really, it made me think of how unrealistic it was that Invisibiilty Cloak Sex isn't canon. What would YOU have done with one when you were in high school?
- This House Will Fall by Anon. Sirius/Bellatrix, implied Sirius/Remus. All men kill the thing they hate, too, unless, of course, it kills them first. - James Thurber Warnings: Angst, (light) bloodplay, incest, canon character death, violence/disturbing content
This is the kind of darkfic I like: an exploration of the inexplicable choices we make--the darker emotions that drive us and what happens when we follow where they want us to go.
- Nice Day for a White Wedding by Anon Artist. This is Ron/Ginny, so of course it's incest. I don't have any particular fondness for the pairing, but it's a great piece of art.
- Possession of the Heart by romaine24. Pairing(s): Harry/Scorpius (Harry/Ginny Harry/OC OC/Scorpius) Summary: Harry loves his life and would never want it to change. But when violence upsets the very foundations of his world, he finds himself turning to the one person whose heart he's protected from the start. Epilogue Compliant. Warning(s): Character Death (not Harry Scorpius Draco), Violence
Honestly, I read this on a whim when I saw it come up on that community, and I'm glad I did because it's a really well-written story, and very touching and emotional without being fluffy and silly.
- Time and Turn Enough by Anon. Ron/Pansy. Ron finds what he needs in the most unlikely place.
A leisurely, serious romance between Ron and Pansy that had me tearing up several times.
- A Single Step (Or Three) by Anon. Neville/Luna A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, even if it's a trip that Neville's not sure he's willing to take yet.
The main selling point for me in this fic is the way it folds into canon. What happened at Hogwarts while the Golden Trio was camping for-freaking- ever? How did Neville step forward and become a badass? This fic has some plausible answers to those questions and a romance between Neville and Luna to boot.
- The Education of Teddy Lupin by Anon Artist. Teddy/older women, Tonks/Fleur Warning:Infidelity. This is a lovely piece of art, and the premise is pretty amusing too.
- This is the Night by Anon. Harry/Ginny, some Sirius/Ginny.Harry is dead and Sirius Black has reappeared. But Ginny is haunted by dreams hinting that all is not what it seems. Warnings: Potentially disturbing content.
An interesting little what-if tale, with a Ginny that I really liked.
- Jouissance by Anon. Draco/Rose. Draco, in atoning for the sins of his past, has lived a life of duty without passion. His life has been a good performance until he meets Rose. This is the story of their fatal, erotic obsession. Warnings: (alphabetically) abuses of power, angst, character death, cross-generational relationships, disturbing content, drama, explicit sexual scenes, guilt, incest (past event), infidelity, lust, obsession, underage sex (past event, not Draco/Rose). Author's notes: DH-compliant. EWE-skewed. Plot liberally borrowed from Josephine Hart’s "Damage", her first person narrative has been transposed to third. Italicised text from "Damage". bewarethesmirk requested Draco as insane, obsessively lusting after Rose with no hint of Draco/Rose as a legitimate, lovey-dovey pairing. This wish has been granted.
This is an intense fic. Imagine it as Draco's turn as Humbert Humbert and you about have it.
- Moonlight Composition For Two by Anon. Cuthbert Binns/Irma Pince. Who and How are oft-times not so important as the Whither and Wherefore. Warnings: the expected character death. consensual sex.
This was such a sweet little story, and the writing style is perfectly suited to the characters.
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| Monday, December 22nd, 2008
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12:08 pm - What's up with....
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All these fics lately with titles that are like a list or something. You know, like "10 Time Draco Malfoy Got an STD"?
It started happening slowly since around summer, and now they're everywhere. I probably have noticed because I find them vaguely annoying for some reason--I've been sitting here staring at the computer screen for about five minutes now trying to determine what that reason is, and I can't figure it out.
I know, I don't post here for months and then what you get is me bitching. That's so me though. I am going to try to post some recs later today from all this holiday festage going on, but empty promises are very me as well so don't get too excited.
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| Saturday, September 6th, 2008
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9:43 pm - Recent fest fic round-up
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I didn't fall off the face of the earth; I've just been really busy and I also took a kind of hiatus from the internets. I waste a lot of time online doing nothing, so I really just stopped using the computer at all, except to infrequently check my emails. I ended up paying attention to other hobbies and spending more time with my daughter, so it was nice, but I miss writing and keeping up with fandom and friends, so I guess it's time to try to do that without sitting in front of the monitor and suddenly realizing that I've been there for five hours. We'll see how that works.
Anyway, all the exchanges I did over the summer are now complete, so I can now tell you that I wrote them.
At ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) weasley_fest, I wrote Faking It for delayed_poet. (Draco/Ginny, PG-13)
At hermione_smut, I wrote What They're After for someone who dropped out. (Hermione/Fred/George, NC-17)
At hpsummer_smut, I wrote The Right Question for ltgarrix. (Narcissa/Snape, NC-17)
At the risk of sounding conceited, I really like the H/F/G one, which is ironic because I really, really hated the prompts and requests and trying to fulfill them is what ultimately, in my opinion, made the story end up being as good as it is. The Draco/Ginny one was a lot of fun; I like banter and that's pretty much what the two of them did. The Snape/Narcissa one is the one I feel the most ambivalent; I don't feel very comfortable writing Snape, and in retrospect I don't know why I did it from Snape's POV either. Well, it was fun to look at Narcissa from his eyes.
Speaking of Narcissa, I noticed as I was skimming comment requests at a holiday exchange sign-up post that a lot of people seem to want nothing to do with her, Lucius, or any Slytherins. I myself don't care for some of the fanfiction that kind of glorifies all the Deatheaters and/or makes them unredeemably evil, psychotic murderers, but as I was contemplating what characters I wanted to write about, I found myself thinking that I'd rather write about them than some of the "nice" characters that people get excited about. This is probably another example of how I am a terrible person. Anyway, this also made me remember that at The Petulant Poetess, my Lucius/Narcissa fic has the lowest story hit count-- lower than even Charlie/Cho. I wonder if that due to the same issues?
Speaking of Cho, my next goal is to finish a fic involving her. Months ago, I wrote a piece at the last minute to submit for the Slash Superchallenge at violetquill's LJ, but due to HTML bork it didn't make it on the masterlist and I wasn't pleased with it anyhow. I mean, I think it's pretty solid, but it kind of meandered to an end that wasn't really satisfying, so I want to play with it and see if it will work as the first part of something longer. I also want to write some drabbles, probably for rairpair_shorts. I'm scared of them and I need to get over that fear.
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| Monday, August 4th, 2008
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11:04 pm - Fest fics and art
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Let me start off in saying I have been remiss in mentioning several exchange gifts that I have received. First, Mystery Author #1 over at weasley_fest was brave enough to write me a Lucius/Ginny fic, for which I must commend them on general principal. However, it's also an interesting twist with a kind of suave, courtly Lucius and ballsy Ginny: Turn The Tide.
Then Mystery Author #2 at hermione_smut gave me a Harry/Ron/Hermione fic, In the middle of a brand new world with you. I really like that it's post-Battle at Hogwarts, because I've always used the fact that in canon, Harry blows Ginny off at that time to be with Hermione and Ron as fodder for my belief that the Trio really belongs together. (Unless Harry wants to get together with Snape. Then we have to do some rearranging.)
And even though hp_summersmut has barely started posting, I already have my gift there! I decided to be brave and request art, and I'm happy to say that Mystery Artist drew me something wonderful so that I don't regret it. Narcissa/Lucius: Before Work.
Anyway, I remembered that I needed to mention all those because I wanted to recommend a story recently posted in hp_summersmut. I've tried to make sure I read all the fics from the other two exchanges and I've kind of failed at that, so I've been reading the summersmut stuff as it comes out to try to make up for it.
Anyway, Guilty Pleasure is an Arthur/Snape fic, and I have to say it's really great. I know, you're shaking your head and thinking I'm nuts. Seriously, it's one of those stories that's so well-written that it doesn't seem cracky at all. It has several warnings in the header that you should check out before reading if you're a big baby.
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| Thursday, July 24th, 2008
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1:53 am - What would you think...
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if someone consistently got sick each time they were supposed to go somewhere that wasn't, say, a typical errand like the grocery store? Like when they were to go out to eat, or travel away from home at least one night. Illnesses vary: headaches/migraines, allergies, kidney infection. I think it's rather suspicious myself.
My computer chair is a thing of horror. It's some weird, ancient folding chair that we found in the hallway of our last apartment. I think that it's killing me because it's the complete opposite of ergonomic. I've been working on a story for the last several hours, and my left hand is going numb and I have a pain in my right hip.
My hand goes numb like that sometimes when I drive for long distances too though. Maybe next time I'm supposed to do so, I should conveniently become ill and avoid the problem?
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| Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
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8:48 am - It's like a broken record.
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For some reason, the OTW debate is raging again, which typically causes me to have a raging headache. The current argument seems to be whether fandom is really sekrit anymore.
Now, I agree that fandom isn't really secret. However, I'm not sure I agree with all the people blithely asserting that zomg, everyone already knows about fandom. So some random NPR show that's been cancelled did an interview with Whatsherface from the OTW. And the Literary Review of Canada did an article. So, how many people do I know that regularly consume either one of those media? Well, none. Those are two specific points that could be quibbled over, but what I'm trying to point out is that generally, I find people DON'T know about fanfiction.
Yeah, you can get a skabillion Google hits for fanfiction, but you have to enter the right search terms.You have to go to del.icio.us in the first place. Or the tv show's website. Or read that actor's interview. Or shit, even get online-- there are still people who don't, you know. Look at how many major news events are covered by mainstream media sources that John Q Public doesn't (take the time to) know about, and you're telling me that the tiny little crumbs of information about fandom that are scattered here and there are going to be paid attention to? Does everyone seriously just bring up their slash writing with random people to find that zomg, they already know about fandom?
I wonder sometimes if I see these things differently because my lifestyle is significantly different from some fen. I get the feeling that perhaps they live in more metropolitan, liberal areas where eccentricity is tolerated to a greater degree. Well, when I'm feeling charitable. When I'm feeling uncharitable, I think they must be deluded and sealed inside some kind of subculture bubble where they imagine that the general public is really going to embrace that having Ron Weasley take it up the ass from Draco Malfoy is transformative. Have they actually gotten offline and went out in the real world lately? Or jeez, just looked at unfunnybusiness?
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| Saturday, July 19th, 2008
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4:52 pm - D'oh.
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Guess who played Sims for at least seven hours yesterday, and befuddled by sleepiness quit WITHOUT SAVING. Eugenie, Zelda, and Angelina's first semester at Sim State University, gone. I was even playing without cheating.
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| Sunday, July 6th, 2008
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6:46 pm - Blah, blah, blah.
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How come nobody told me that John McCain is actually married to Narcissa Malfoy?
In other news... hmm, not sure where to start. The past few months have been really busy with real life stuff: job, therapy for my kid, some small bit of traveling that kid makes infinitely more complex. Anyway, that means that I haven't really updated here in any coherent manner. I have gotten a good amount of writing finished recently, but it's all exchange-related to it shall remain secret for now. I'm hoping that I will keep on working on some things that don't have a deadline, but I feel rather burnt out so I'm not sure that I will.
Also, I did a stupid thing awhile back and let my sister give me her old Sims 2 game. Fast-forward a couple months and two expansion packs later, and a great deal of my free time is now spent with my sprawling family of Lichensteins in the neighborhood of Pleasantville. I started out with Auraelia, Edgar, and Elizabetta, who are siblings, and two kids: Edgar's son Ray and Auraelia's daughter Betty. Now Edgar's married to the maid, Auraelia's a lesbian vampire, and Ray and Betty have graduated from college and Ray just got married. Elizabetta had been living with Edgar and his wife to help with their three kids (twins Eugenie and Zelda and their little brother, Simon) but she moved out last night to start her own life.
The problem is that I love having all these babies and kids, but there's no way to keep playing all these characters. Also, I have a free will hack installed so that the Sims with the "family" aspiration that are married are always running off and sleeping with each other to try to get knocked up (Edgar, I'm thinking of you here, sir). I have another hack that I can delete the pregnancy, but that seems creepy. You can also give the kid up for adoption, but that seems pretty sketchy as well.
I think the bottom line is that I'm too attached to these little characters on a screen and I'm thinking about it too much.
My last note for today is that my child now constantly makes me draw the characters from Spongebob Squarepants. There's something about Spongebob's nose that I cannot quite master. However, my Mr Krabs is so good it looks like it came from Nickelodeon Studios. I guess when I finally go over the edge and run off, I could maybe try to get a job there.
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| Friday, July 4th, 2008
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7:13 pm - Hey, look what I got!
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I was in a bad mood today, and what should I find in my inbox but this to cheer me up:
Yay! I love the Petulant Poetess,despite that fact that they always find at least ten grammar errors in everything I write even after it's beta-d to death. I can't wait for the reveals of all these fests so that I can archive all of those stories there.
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| Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
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9:10 pm - In which my feathers are ruffled
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This makes me want to wait until the absolute last second to email my story, which I was planning on sending tonight.
I've never done an exchange in which the mods just assumed that if you didn't send your story early that you were not going to send it at all. I would have been happy to, I don't know, notify them of my progress if I'd realized it was that important to them, but being randomly chastised doesn't sit well with me.
I'm also loling because the mods were about five days late in sending out the assignments. Ha, ha, ha.
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| Thursday, May 29th, 2008
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10:05 pm - I can't keep away from the serious business lately.
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Wow, this went really well.
I'm not sure what I think about it all, and obviously whatsherface is a huge bitch for starting it. However, I can't help but think of some of the mountains I've seen fandom make out of molehills and wonder how easily some people could justify say, calling my employer, a public school system, and complaining next time I start flipping my big fin on the wrong side of a wank?
I mean, it's "so obvious" this time, but what about next time? What if I am a huge asshole and call someone a fatty-fatty-two-by-four, complete with pictures? Maybe reveal my secret white supremacist agenda? Say that I don't think slash is feminist and the OTW makes me barf? I know, I'm being facetious, and it's not that I believe that anyone will be targeting me per se, because in actuality there are few people who even read this blog. I suppose I'm just rather sensitive about the concept because if it happened I really would end up sleeping on the street in a cardboard box.
And my kid that is currently screaming at ear splitting volume probably won't adjust to homelessness real well. People with autism hate change and all. Better go try to smooth over whatever crisis is occurring... spilled crackers, a block tower that fell down, a DVD episode that she doesn't like. I mean, this is life and death stuff.
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| Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
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6:26 pm - What's wrong with my subconscious?
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I dreamed that I was at a Beck concert. There was an intermission, and these staff people were going around the auditorium where the concert was being held and asking people to volunteer. Apparently, Beck wanted to have a bunch of people from the audience come on stage and sing the chorus of a song. I was one of the people chosen, and so I went backstage with the others. It was really bizarre and like a spaceship; everything made of metal and plastic with no windows and lots of sliding automatic doors and the like. Somehow, some of us got separated from the main group and ended up wandering around; the place was huge. After some events which I cannot recall specifically, we realized that it was all a plot to convert us to Scientology.
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| Saturday, May 10th, 2008
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7:36 pm - Being fair, or playing too nice?
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Throughout the Lexicon Wank, there have been small hints here and there of trouble in SVA's personal life, mostly having to do with him leaving his wife for a fellow fan. However, any real discussion of it in the endless series of wank entries on the subject has been banned or frowned upon, and so those small nuggets have been all that I knew, not being connected to the issue in any way save f_w.
It was interesting to me then to recently discover through comments here that allegedly Steve's obsession with the Lexicon and Harry Potter strained his family/marriage (which still exists, he's not divorced yet), that the woman he is dating is 23 (while he is 50 and his own daughter is 20), that he has almost no contact with his kids, and that since he is in the UK at this time he is not paying any support to his family, among other sordid details.
And by interesting, I don't mean "gee, look at what a fucked up mess this guy's life is!" schadenfreude. I feel that these details, while related to his personal life, cast some of his statements, decisions, and motivations as are related to the Lexicon and this whole mess in a different light. Additionally, the recent trend in press coverage portraying him as a sad, child-like innocent seem even more odd when you consider the apparent shambles of his family life.
I say because, for example, over the course of the wank there was mention of him needing to find a job in England, or saying that he moved to England to write. Well, according to his wife, he moved there to get out of paying support and apparently his girlfriend lives there. So there's something that has perhaps a different tenor if you know the personal details or not. And the press playing up the quiet librarian angle? According to his wife, he got fired from that job due to the affair, since it was a Christian school. I could go on and on, but I don't really want to dissect SVA's personal life, just show a few instances of how this stuff made me (and I think could make others) reconsider events as they pertain to the wank.
So, I'm not sure what I think about f_w keeping this on the DL. I have seen small instances of personal nastiness popping up in relation to what limited information has been posted, and I can see where extensive discussion has the potential to set off its own wank of epic proportions. On the other hand, I can't say that I think that it's not at all relevant either. I guess that means we'll chalk this up as yet another issue where I've taken a strong, decisive stance.
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| Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
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8:31 pm - Vacation, all I ever wanted
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I'm excited to report that I have been away on vacation. This was good because it's intrinsically wonderful to go on vacation, but it also means in this case that I apparently missed a shit-ton of fandom-drama going down. Anyway, if I missed something that was actually worthwhile, someone let me know, because I'm only skimming my various flists.
I haven't gotten any writing done lately. I've been doing more beta-ing. I feel bad because I beta-d the shit out of this one chapter I got, and the author never responded; it was a good story, it just needed some structural work. Maybe this weekend I can do some writing of my own. I'm just merrily ignoring the three fest/challenge fics I have due next month, and that will surely come back to haunt me here soon.
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| Monday, April 28th, 2008
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11:25 pm - busy, busy, busy
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My gosh, have I been busy lately. I did manage to get my first ficlet for rarepair_shorts posted here. Other than that, fic-wise I've been doing quite a bit of beta work and also agonizing over what to rec for Harry/Ron/Hermione over at crack_broom. That was kind of fun, but I wasn't able to relax about it, and so I felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders to rec the most perfect, bestest fics ever. Yeah, I know. That's what anxiety disorders will do to you.
Otherwise, REAL LIFE has been a hot mess, and I've been spending a lot of time reading and throwing myself into non-computer activities so that I don't have to dwell on it. Nothing too terrible, just upheaval with my job, but see above: anxiety disorder. I hope that things will smooth out soon because I have a lot of ideas for things and also many exchange/fest/challenge assignments that I need to be working on. It'd be nice to stop clenching my teeth before they crack and fall out of my head as well.
I could blather on, but I should have been asleep about 24 minutes ago, and instead I am still sitting here at the screen, completely unprepared for the workday tomorrow. >_
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| Monday, April 7th, 2008
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9:11 pm - I can't leave well enough alone.
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I ended up having a good time writing that Cho/Charlie fic for that erotic_elves challenge, so when I discovered THE HP SLASH SUPERCHALLENGE, I was excited. I could do some f/f and some wild pairings! So I used a random number generator and made my comment.
The excitement lasted until I got the three choices: Tonks/Andromeda, Cho/Padma, Bellatrix/Hermione. I usually refuse to write Bellatrix or Tonks when asked for fests and whatnot, so there's a strike against those two pairings right there. Plus, the idea of Tonks/Andromeda is total squick for me because of the incest (mother/daughter is like, the only kind that grosses me out). So it's looking like fate has thrown me and Cho together again, unless I can stomach Bellatrix, which is doubtful.
I need to write more, but I'm depressed that my grammar isn't perfect. Boo hoo hoo! ;_;
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| Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
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11:08 pm - Reminder to myself
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This post is to remind myself that I have two exchange fics due June 21.
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| Sunday, March 30th, 2008
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4:17 pm - Fic updates
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My erotic_elves challenge fic is posted here in case anyone ever wondered how I could contrive to have Cho Chang and Charlie Weasley get it on. It ended up being rather sweet, which kind of wasn't where I thought it would be ending up, but hey.
Now I have one short L/G to edit, one to write, and then, I'm not sure. I do have a couple challenges I've signed up for, but they aren't due in the very near future. I may try to tackle the sequel to Apple (cue ominous music here), but I might go ahead and try to finish all the L/g shorts first.
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