Entries tagged with meme

Current Mood: mellow
Crossposts: https://hells-half-acre.livejournal.com/519178.html

Entry tags:

life,
meme

New Years Questions

In the spirit of reflection, I stole these questions from metallidean_girl... usually, on New Years Eve, I used to do a fic-themed recap of the year, but much like last year, I think I only managed one fic this year, so there's not much to talk about Hopefully next year I do a little better in terms of getting more than one fic done.

So, here's some general questions:

1. What happened to you in 2017 that made you the happiest?
Well, I finally earned enough money to go on a vacation - which came in handy, when my bestfriend decided to get married in Nov. You'd think, perhaps, the wedding would have made me the happiest, but would that it were so simple. Instead, the wedding was a churning pit of conflicting emotions, which I navigated with grace and aplomb and only one teary phonecall back home to my other BFF, so that they could assure me that I was not going to freeze to death in the desert. BUT, that all aside, I was very proud of myself for being able to afford to go, and also, while I was in California for the wedding, I booked myself a slot to MEET A CHEETAH! And that made me very happy indeed. Also, my other BFF got engaged, and named me the Friend of Honour - and I am indeed honoured. I feel very very lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

2. What are your plans for New Year's Eve/New Year's Day?
Tonight I'm going to a lowkey houseparty. It is a comfy clothes, let's just chill out, party... which is great, because that's my style these days. New Years Day.... I actually forgot that it's usually a holiday, so I didn't plan time off work or anything. So, I will probably be treating it like a regular day, though hopefully work will be slow and I can use a lot of the day to map out my schedule for the month and hang my new calendars and whatnot.

3. What was the best discovery you made in 2017?
Hmm, this one is tough... I guess, well... if we go by discovery=learning - then I discovered ASL and how much fun it is to learn. If we go by discovery=proving of a hypothesis - then I discovered that much like I had hoped, although I inevitably was laid off, the job I took for the sole purpose of giving myself marketable skills on my resume WORKED and I now have marketable skills on my resume and am in a much better position than I was before I took that job. So, yay! Mission success!

4. What are your thoughts on the idea of "new year/new you?"
I generally don't agree... but it's not that I don't agree that you can change who you are, if you choose to - it's that I disagree that you should do it at New Years. If there is something you want to change about your life, you either do it as soon as you think about it, or you don't do it at all. I recognize that a new year is a good signal to put the past behind you and move on to the future - but in my opinion, if you can't do that in May or mid-November, then you're not going to be able to do it in January ether.

BUT, some people like symbols and hard dates, and setting challenges. AND sometimes it works out that you want to try a different scheduling technique, and the best time to do that is when you buy a new planner/calendar for the upcoming year.... and yeah, I've done that before too. I'm perhaps just cynical about resolutions because it means that my yoga studio and gym get WAY too crowded in January before everyone eventually gives up on their dreams and leaves me in peace.

5. What are you most looking forward to in 2018?
I'm looking forward to seeing if a potential new job will pan out. If it does, I might be able to afford another vacation. If it doesn't - luckily, I have a good steady part-time job right now that covers my basic bills. Other than that... possibly learning more ASL? My friend's stagger party.... seeing if this new scheduling technique I want to try is going to allow me to produce more fic/writing time. US mid-term elections? Seeeing if Wayward Sisters gets picked up by the CW to go to series. Black Panther. Just living my life?

Happy New Year everybody!

Current Mood: sleepy

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 29-30

Okay, I was too sleepy to do a rewatch today. So, instead, I'll finish up the fanfic question meme, and I'll attempt to do a rewatch tomorrow.

29 – What is your current project or projects?

I don't have any current fanfic projects. I've got another (final?) demented'verse installment percolating in the back of my head while I do my rewatch of S10. But, other than that, I don't have any immediate plans for fanfic.

These days, I'm trying to put my focus back on writing an original novel. Right now, I'm working on a high fantasy novel that I'm pretty jazzed about.

30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link

I had a really stellar beta for Men of Legend. She knew how to tighten up my language without losing what I was saying. I tend to use 7 words when I only need 4 - sometimes that works for the mood of a story, but sometimes it doesn't. My beta was very good at cutting extraneous words. Also, Men of Legend is a really great contained story - as discussed before, it's part of the reason I'm loath to write a sequel.

I also really love The Unfortunate Brother: Childhood. Mainly, because I got to write a bunch of really great "we're saying stuff that we're not saying" conversations and I love those.

Uh, favourite non-crossover? I don't know. Crossovers are kinda my jam.

And that's the fanfic question meme officially done! Good job, me! If any of you want me to slowly answer other questions over the next month or so, let me know! You can AMA or point me in the direction of another list.

Otherwise, stay tuned for other stuff, I guess!

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 27-28

So, I forgot to do a rewatch on the weekend. I could technically do one tonight, but I'm not really in the mood... so, my apologies!

In the meantime, here's two more of these meme questions:

27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

With fanfic, I generally use the computer for both outlining and writing. With original fic, I find that I really can only outline by hand, and I only use the computer for writing.

My favourite place to write is my friend's house, because it's both nice to just HAVE company, and easier to stay on task when you have someone that will raise their eyebrows at you goofing off.

.

28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

I gave one of my plot bunnies to another writer once, and then acted as her beta for the finished story... so, that was a LITTLE bit of a collab. But, I've never really collaborated with anyone before. My friend and I outlined a possible Leverage fic that we would write together someday, but we both have so many other projects, I'm not sure it's actually going to get done.

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 24-26

Let's do another one of these while I wait for my muffins to cook (not a euphemism)

24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

I used to have no betas at all, and then I'd spend MONTHS after posting a fic, going back through and fixing mistakes whenever someone pointed them out or I read the story over myself. Then one reader actually too the time to go through the entirety of DDD for me and JUST fix the punctuation/grammar. And I thought, "you know, it would have been nice if someone had done that before I posted."

And thus the next time I wrote something, I asked if anyone minded betaing for me. Ever since then, I usually find at least one beta reader, if I can. So, how many I use really just depends on who answers my request for betas.

I'm not going to tell you horror or dream stories though, because I think that's unfair to the betas who taken the time to do me a FAVOUR. I mean, ~~weather~~whether they find 1 mistake out of 100 or 100 mistakes out of 100, I'm grateful that they took the time to lend a hand. (ETA: and that "weather" is the perfect example of why I need betas)

.

25 – Music – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?

No. I need it to be quiet, though, I HAVE gotten used to writing in a coffee shop and having the coffee shop music playing in the background... but when I'm writing at home, I definitely can't have music on, and I'll tell you why:

Music keeps my brain anchored to what is immediately happening. If I put on music, especially music that I know and LIKE, then I will listen to the music and sing along... I will not be able to write dialogue, because the music will be the dialogue... I will not be able to sink my thoughts into the world I'm creating, because the music will anchor me to MY WORLD.

It's actually a key function of music when I'm driving. When I'm driving, especially for long distances, I need to have music on. Why? Because I will literally get lost in thought otherwise and drive into a ditch. I HAVE DONE IT BEFORE. Music isn't a distraction from driving for me, it's what keeps me anchored to the reality that I am driving.

When I write though, being anchored to my reality is not a good thing - I need to be able to get lost in thought. I need to be able to sink into the mood of my character without the song changing over to something that doesn't apply and rips me out of the mindset.

Now, that all being said, I do take a lot of inspiration from music, but mostly while I'm listening to my iPod walking around town. I'll listen to music and I'll think about what I want to write the next time I'm sitting down at my computer, but when I DO sit down, the music will be off.

26 – What is the oddest (or funniest) thing you've had to research for a fic?

I wish I had a funny answer for this. I don't really need to look up that much for the type of fic that I write. My fic is mostly all canon based, so anything "odd" or "funny" is just me looking up different canon facts. How long does it take to brew the draught of living death? Etc... nothing too outlandish.

OH! Wait, I do have a funny story... When my friend read the demented'verse, they wanted to know just how low Nate's dating prospects really WERE in the Wizarding world of the UK.... so, yeah, we actually did all the math based on real-world statistics for what percentage of the population tends to be gay males, what percentage of the population Rowling has said wizards make up, and what percentage of the population is in Nate's age-range. So, yeah, we basically did a bunch of Gay Wizard Math. So, yeah, I mean, it wasn't really FOR a fic, but it was proving to my friend that I was right when I had Nate complain about the slim pickin's especially while he was at school.

Current Mood: hungry

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 21-23

Fanfic Question Meme - Questions 18-20

I'm planning to do another rewatch tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's some more of these questions...

18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?

There are ~~three~~ four things that inspire me to write fic:

1. Gaps in canon or quetions that canon can't answer - Stuff like my story Of Bracelets is just answering the question of "why does Dean wear bracelets?" Other things are "What made Dean think of talking to Death in order to get Sam's soul back?" ... or "How would Arthur react to being resurrected in a world he's not a prince and everyone is cool with same-sex marriage?" What were those scenes like that we never saw where Sam and Dean carried their brother's dead body back to the car? Or it can be a line in canon, like when Dean threatens to "dream-scape [Sam's] noggin" if he doesn't wake up from his coma soon...well, what would it have been like if Dean HAD?

2. Images - I'll get images stuck in my head and I'll want to write them... I'll want to figure out a story to get me there. Dean with glowing eyes and wings, as Sam accidentally turns him into a patronus when faced with dementors. Tony Stark meeting 1943's Bucky Barnes over a campfire. (I still want to do a longer version of that fic where we see it from Tony's pov - but I'm too intimidated to write Tony pov.) Sherlock in the recurring dream I used to have until my mid-twenties. George Weasley walking down a suburban American street wearing a bowler hat.

3. Sentences/Jokes - With "Sam Is..." I just got the phrase "Sam was catatonic" stuck in my head. "Lies were kept simple" is called that because that sentence was demanding me to write a fic based around it. It just happens sometimes. I'll get a line stuck in my head and my mind won't stop repeating it until I write it down, and only then will my brain be like "okay, now that those words are out, these are the ones that come next..." Othertimes, it will be a joke that I want to make. Vile Violent Vacations is mainly me taking scenes and scenes to set up jokes - I basically wrote 100k words because I wanted to have a punchline somewhere towards the end. I can't even remember what it was now, but I'm fairly positive that that entire fic exists solely for the jokes. I'm actually doing the same currently with the original high-fantasy novel that I'm currently working on. It took me 30k to set up and make my first joke. Now I'm working on setting up the next one. (In fairness though, the fantasy novel is also bunnied by images, not just jokes... also I really love the main character that I've created and I want to introduce them to people.)

4. Prompts - Occasionally, VERY occassionally, I'll be bunnied by someone else's plot bunny in the form of a prompt. This is where Men of Legend came from. Something about someone's idea will trigger a series of images in my head, or make me want to answer a question, or any of the above three things that I listed and I'll need to write that fic.

19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

Neither? I let things rattle around in my brain. I rarely write things down unless I'm actively outlining something that I'm about to write. If I forget an idea... well, if the idea is forgetable then it's probably not very good? Fics rattle around in my brain for days, weeks, months, years... I build on them when I have a moment to stare off into space, or when I'm going to sleep at night.

Now, there are exceptions to this - if I'm bunnied by a sentence that my brain won't stop repeating, that gets annoying FAST and I know I'll get relief if I write it down, so those fics tend to get written sooner rather than later - usually within a day or two of the arrival of the sentence. If I'm bunnied by an image, I tend to sit on those the longest - I like holding images in my brain where they are perfect and in full technocolour glory - and not ruined by my feeble attempts at describing them using my rudimentary knowledge of the english language.

20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

Jaein? I get bunnied by other people's stories, but not necessarily in a good way... some of my stories are actually in response to me not liking other people's stories. If you want something done right, do it yourself! So, yeah. It's a really arrogant thing, which is why I'm loath to admit to it.

I don't tend to get bunnied by art at all. It's more like the oppposite - if I weren't so out of practice with art, I'd probably get art-bunnied by stories. Like I said, images are where a lot of my fic ideas come from, and that's me trying to do "art", trying to show you the image that I have in my brain...so, if I could actually do art, then I would draw it. But, yeah, I haven't really picked up pencil/ink/paint, since I was a teen, so I'm HORRIBLY out of practice... words are all I have. I guess that's the difference - I write to convey images, so when I see art, well, it's art - it doesn't need words, it's conveying an image all on it's own.

Current Mood: weird

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 14-17 and amendment to 7

I feel adrift without talking to you guys on Wednesday night - so I'm going to do another few of these questions before bed.

14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?

I'm actually comfortable writing all ratings. I know I don't write much NC-17/Explicit stuff under the name hells_half_acre, but I HAVE done it elsewhere and enjoyed it immensely. And no, I've never set out to write one rating and written another - if I want things to be porny, I write them porny, if I don't want them to be porny, then I don't put sex in.

The amendment to that is that Americans rate for sex and Europeans rate for violence. I tend not to rate for violence (ie: I use the American method of rating), so that's the only area where I might be writing a higher or lower rating than I'm claiming without realizing it - there might be Europeans reading my fic who are like MY GOD, YOU JUST CHOPPED SOMEONE'S HEAD OFF IN THIS G-RATED FIC! I'm APPALLED! But, I kinda doubt it, because no one's ever actually said that. Also, if there's swearing or graphic violence, I usually jack the rating up to "Teen" just to be on the safe side.

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

Most important is to warn for spoilers! Nah, probably most important is to warn for any rape, sexual assault, or dubious consent. Recently, I wrote a fic where someone had an anxiety disorder - and although I didn't think I was graphically/viscerally describing the anxiety attacks at all, I got a few comments about how with the way my writing evokes emotion and also the fast-clip of the action at that point, I HAD actually set a very anxious and heat-pounding pace to the chapter... and one of the commenters suggested that I might want to warn for Panic/Anxiety, and so I did immediately.

I don't think I've ever warned for anything strange.

16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

God, I hate them. I really really hate them. I'm horrible at coming up with them and if my fic doesn't get many hits, I always blame the summary before I blame anything else. How do I come up with them? I try to think of a way to say what the story is about without giving away anything and also being funny and/or curiosity-inducing... basically, I try to come up with the equivalent of "click bait" only for fic and far less obnoxious or obvious.

17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

Sometimes they can be the easiest thing. The Case of the Unfortunate Brother was one that was really simple to think up and I love it. Same with Lies Were Kept Simple, which is probably my favourite title I've ever come up with next to Damned Demented Demons (also super easy to come up with.) The nice thing about coming up with a good title for the first story in a 'verse is that it can provide the titling-scheme for the rest fo the 'verse too, which is why the demented'verse, for the most part, all have alliterative titles for the longer stories.

If they're not easy though, they're IMPOSSIBLE. I tend to either go with poems and sound super pretention such as with "I Imagine the Gods Saying, We Will Make it up to You" (which is just WAY too long for a title, even though it's possibly my favourite poem ever and I love it.) Or I go with too brief and vague and end up with The Time Traveler, which doesn't tell you really anything about the fic and no one is interested in it at all. (Yes, I'm still bitter that apparently that story sucks and no one likes it... I really should write a longer less opaque version of it some day so that I can get all those sweet sweet Stucky hits.... but, I've probably missed my window for that sort of story now that Civil War is coming out.)

Some titles, such as "Men of Legend" were actually originally a placeholder for a better title, and then I realized there was no better title.

I don't title each chapter.

Amendment to my previous answer to 7:
7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

When I answered this before, I talked about my own fic, and also my inspiration for Draco in the demented'verse (which was from someone else's fic that changed my opinion of what Draco could be.)

HOWEVER, at the time I completely forgot about the journey I took in my teens with Due South fic and the character of Ray Kowalski. In Due South, Ray was a character who, as one of the comedic elements of the show, would often-times forget words and or say the wrong word - such as saying hypochondriac instead of hypocrite... or just saying a sentence like "He was a hyper- high- hippo-" and then another character would say "hypocrite?" and he'd be like "yeah, that!"

So, when I was watching the show, I thought nothing of it - it was a character quirk, it was funny. Then I read a fic once that brought up the fact that Ray was a former boxer, not to mention a fellow who tended to get injured a lot... and that aphrasia was a real thing from which people who were oft hit in the head might suffer.

Now, of course, aphrasia, when you do more reading, is a LOT more complicated that what Ray seemed to display, but that fic still got me to see a "quirk" in a whole new light... mainly, I had never considered before that intelligence and the ability to articulate your thoughts were two completely different things and that there were people who could be extremely intelligent, but have a disability that made them sound hilariously inept at times (like Ray), or simply they could have difficulty articulating their thoughts in general. For the extremely arrogant teenager that I was, that was a needed revelation, both in terms of looking at the character in a new light, but also cutting real people some slack too (including myself).

Now, of course, by the time I got to doing my Masters at unversity, I realized that the inverse was also true, and that people who could speak eloquently and sound super intelligent could also be gigantic idiots who just happened to be good orators.

Current Mood: relaxed

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Questions 10 to 13

Turns out that I don't have time to do another rewatch today. But, I DO have about a half hour or so to kill, so I figured I'd do more of this fanfic questions thing...

10 – ~~Pairings~~ Characters – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a ~~pairing~~ character you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a ~~pairing~~ character you didn't like, and found you could?

Once again changing the question, since I very very seldom write slash or non-canon pairing and when I do, it's always a pairing I like and I'm able to write. So, that doesn't make for a very interesting answer.

I've mentioned it before, but I tried to write Cas POV once and just failed spectacularly. I like Cas just fine, but I have a specific headcanon for what the inside of his head looks like and I just couldn't capture it accurately, in my opinion. So, that was a little disappointing.

As for characters that I didn't like but found I could write - Draco. I was actually pretty terrified of writing him into the demented'verse, but then once I did, I found that I actually really loved writing him. It helps, I think, that I'm writing him post-series and with an extremely opimistic headcanon for who he becomes.

Similarly, I was nervous about Ron, but I think I did an okay job with him - though, putting him in fics still intimidates me for some reason, so he's been a bit light the last few demented'verse stories. I should probably try to change that down the road.

11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

I'm not sure what's meant by genre here. I mean, I tend to just match the "genre" of whatever show I'm writing about. And I don't write that many shows, so they're all sort of drama with comedy mixed in. Is that a genre? Optimistic amusing drama stories? I guess I tend to go for emotional angst when I write a lot, if that could be considered a genre. I'm fairly fascinated with internal emotional landscapes, so that probably comes through somehow in my writing.

12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

Nope. I don't actually enjoy those all that much... probably because I know exactly where the story is going and therefore the fic comes off as boring. I'm sure there's exceptions to that out there, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

I think it's quite obvious that I prefer canon. I actually experience more creative inspiration when given a hard set of rules that I have to work around in order to create a story. It's like... if you give me a box of crayons with every single colour you can think of and ask me to draw a picture, I'll probably sit there forever staring at the blank page with absolutely no idea what to do. But, if you give me only three or four colours and tell me I can only use those, I'll figure something out pretty quick.

As for fanfic changing the way I see some or even all of the original source material? Well... I think that what I said above actually illustrates the change in how I see source material since writing fanfic...

It's gone from "This is a show, be entertained!" to "These are your tools and these are your guidelines, create!"

Which, in my opinion, is pretty damn awesome.

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 9

Okay, I might still do another rewatch tonight - I haven't decided yet. It's already 8pm and besides going to yoga, I've pretty much wasted the day.

Anyway, first I'd thought I'd do another one of these questions things...

9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

Okay, so the problem with this question is that I'm too much of a canon oriented person to write pairings unless they are REALLY heavy-handed in canon, to the point where I actually fully believe that the writers could choose to go there and it'd be completely believable. (And, yes, I realize that a lot of slash writers see their ships as falling into that category when I don't, but that's just the nature of subjective opinion.)

So, let's change the question slightly to:

For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favourite characters or pairings to write?

Supernatural - I like writing from either Sam or Dean's POV. Although I like having Cas in scenes, especially when it's crossovers (because I can do a lot of cool things with Cas in crossovers), the one time I tried to write a fic from Cas' POV, I ended up abandoning it, because in my headcanon, Cas' mind is like the most complicated book on metaphysics and mathematics that exists... and yeah, I just can't capture that to my satisfaction in writing. No pairings in SPN.

Harry Potter - I like writing Harry, Teddy, and Draco. Those would be my top three. Draco is a surprise, because I was not a huge Draco fan when reading the books, but I really like what I've done with him in the demented'verse, and he's become a joy to write. Only canon pairings in Harry Potter, so mostly all het ships... though, I like the really strange relationship that I've written between Nate and Teddy where they're basically platonic life-partners.

Sherlock - Well, again, pretty boring and going with Sherlock and John. I like writing Sherlock the best, just because (and this sounds super arrogant even though I don't mean it that way) I see a lot of myself in Sherlock. I HAVE written pairings in Sherlock, and that's of course the super predictable Sherlock/John, because the LOVE is canon, whether or not the sex is.

Merlin - Pairings I like are Merlin/Arthur, Merlin/Gwaine, and Gwen/Lancelot... I also like Merlin/Arthur/Gwen, where Gwen and Merlin don't actually have sex with each other, but they're both supportive of each other's relationship with Arthur. If you squint at Men of Legend, you can see me hinting at that heavily. Because Merlin is the gayest show to ever not-explicitly-gay, I actually see all my ships as completely supported by canon. As for who I like to write the most, I actually really really enjoyed writing from Arthur's POV in I Imagine The Gods...

Captain America/Marvel Cinematic Universe - Steve/Bucky, Clint/Natasha (ignoring Ultron), and... although I've never written it, I fully support fans of Peggy/Angie. Before Ultron, Clint/Nataha was fairly supported in the MCU, and they ARE canon in the comics (in the past anyway). Steve/Bucky is SO SUPPORTED BY CANON, I don't even care that the MCU will probably shy away from it and make Steve/Sharon canon... it'll piss me off, make no mistake, because right now they've done the classic romance build between Steve and Bucky. Bucky was Steve's damsel in distress/fridged girlfriend in CA:TFA, and Bucky was AGAIN Steve's romance plot in CA:TWS. (As a sidenote, Steve is Peggy's fridged girlfriend in Agent Carter, and I love it.) As for characters, I've only ever written from Bucky's POV, so I don't know, I guess he takes top spot. Oh, wait, that's not true, I also wrote a short fic from Natasha's POV, so I guess my top two are Bucky and Natasha (and as a sidenote, I also kind of like the Bucky/Natasha pairing, but I don't want the cinematic universe to go there.)

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 8

My god, this is such a boring week at work. I've got nothing to do. Anyway, still a couple hours before tonight Supernatural episode, so, to pass the time, here is another fanfic meme question thingy...

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

I do not name them Mary Sue.

Okay, no, I'll be serious.

I do write OCs. It's hard to write a multi-chaptered world-exploring crossover without ending up with OCs. Heck, even any long non-crossover would have OCs, especially for shows like SPN with such a limited recurring cast.

How do I make sure my OCs aren't Mary Sues? I never make them the hero. Now, of course, everyone is the hero of their own story - so, really, what I'm saying is that although my OCs are heros of their own story, the story I am writing is not their story. They are never the focal point of the story I am telling. Even if the story is from their POV, it's the POV of someone HELPING the heros of the story, not the POV of someone who is the hero of the story.

Till is my most powerful OC. He's the only medic I have in the demented'verse - he, arguably, saves Sam's life in Brains and Bones.He also saves Draco's life in Purgatory, Prophets and Potions.Brains and Bones if from Till's POV, but it's the POV of someone who is pulled into a situation they don't understand and ultimately are not a part of, at the end of the story, Till does not defeat the leviathan, he just goes home and hopes that Sam and Dean defeat the leviathan - because that is beyond his capabilities. In PPP,Till saves Draco's life, but it's Draco (a non-OC) that solves the mystery of what is wrong with Sam and saves the day... the only thing Till does is prevent that feat from being Draco's last.

Nate, I think, is my closest to becoming a Mary Sue - he's still a support character, but I haven't explored his limitations in the same way that I've firmly established Till's. I mean, Till is a medic, and you don't really expect him to have many skills beyond that. Nate is also a "support" character, but his skill set isn't defined, so therefore I fear that people might assume he can do anything. More than that, I often have him being calm, cool, and collected even in extremely stressful situations. This has all occured just because I haven't had the time in stories to really establish Nate's short-comings, or to use other characters to point them out. And unlike Till, who is very humble, Nate isn't the type to point out or even acknowledge his own short-comings. He's, by and large, a very confident guy by nature - more than that, I've paired him narratively with someone who ISN'T confident or collected, so Nate comes off as even more confident, cool and collected in comparision.

But, Nate's never the hero of the story. He's a support to those who need support, but he never saves the day. He never solves people's problems and, in moments where he COULD possibily do something badass, he fails to do so.

OCs can be a ton of fun, but don't make them the hero of the story. You can make them a rich, complex character, people will fall in love with them if you do - but, the story can't be about them.

Now, thoughts in general on Mary Sue's:

A lot of women's first fics are Mary Sue's - and, yes, Mary Sue's are bad writing (In so far as it is always bad writing to have a "perfect" main character that is super-powered and/or can do no wrong). BUT, the reason a lot of women/young-girls start out writing Mary Sue's is because they love a story and they want to identify with someone in that story, and more often than not, thanks to our white cis male dominated media, there is actually no canon character that these girls feel they can identify with... so, they write one in. And of COURSE they're going to make them beyond awesome, because THEY'RE beyond awesome and they want to identify with this character... and these women/young-girls have the confidence and self-esteem to see nothing at all wrong with this. This is how they WANT to interact with their fantasy-worlds if they were ever sucked into them. No one writes a story about themselves traveling to Middle Earth where they're killed by orcs not even two chapters in! No, if you ever went to Middle Earth, you'd want to travel all the way to the Lonely Mountain with Bilbo, or you'd want to travel all the way to Mordor with Frodo...or Gondor with Strider... you want to rescue your faves from death and you want to bring peace to the world. You want to be the IDEAL VERSION OF YOU!

And, that's why I don't think we should shit on fic-writers who enter the fic-writing world this way. They're writing, and they're writing an ideal version of themselves and their favourite worlds... and that's something to be commended. Now, I'm not saying that it means you have to read the fics and lie about how good they are - because those fics are inevitably crappy, without good tension, and any character written as completely without flaw becomes an annoying smug bastard quickly. But, I'm just saying, don't shit on the newbie authors that write Mary Sue's - be encouraging that the write and read more, they'll learn soon enough what makes a good story and what doesn't, but they have to keep at writing in order to do so, and they're not going to do that if someone shits all over their first tentative steps into fandom.

And now my boss has actually given me stuff to do, because it's 4:30pm, so OF COURSE NOW HE GIVES ME STUFF TO DO!

Talk to you guys after the show tonight...

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 7

Super bored again. I just have to kill fifteen minutes while I wait for my grilled cheese to cook.

7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

When I wrote The Case of the Unfortunate Brother and realized what a horrible relationship Merlin and Mycroft had... well, yeah... I mean, so much of that series is written from Merlin's POV or with Merlin monologuing to John, that I couldn't help but kind of... see Mycroft from his perspective. And, well, I realized that maybe Mycroft means well, but Mycroft actually gets so many things wrong when it comes to people. A lot of the times in the series, he's built up to be smarter than Sherlock (I think he's canonically smarter than Sherlock), but, I also think that a lot of the time he's not at all smarter than Sherlock and Sherlock beliving that he is leads to many mistakes being made.

So, that's the example of my opinion of a character changing because of a fic I wrote.

I'm sure other people's fics have changed the way I view characters too. Actually, a prime example is the unfinished WIP The Inconveniences of Being a Malfoy, that is the largest influence in how I write Malfoy in the demented'verse. Their post-hallows Draco was probably the first time I ever LIKED the character and saw the full richness of who he could become post-series.

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 6

I'm bored. So, let's do another one of these things...

Question 6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

I don't think I have a preference. I mean, 98% of what I write is from a male POV, but that's because my fandoms are all of predominately male (and white) shows. Supernatural, Sherlock, Merlin, Harry Potter... they've all got male leads. I think the only long-form fanfic I've written that has female POV in it is the demented'verse, and that's because I KNOW I've written from Ginny's POV in it. I can't even remember if I've written from Hermione's POV... maybe I have? I feel like I have at least once.

That all being said...Technically, I'm a female, so everything I write is from a female POV.

But yeah, I have no preference and I make no distinctions based on gender. My most beloved OCs are male, I suppose - so maybe that shows a bias on my part that's unconscious. But, I had reasoning for those characters being dudes... and I've had a lot of female OCs in the demented'verse too. All the girls in Teddy's year, Zaf, Maria...

In my non-fanfic writing, I mean... you can't really judge off my first novel, because I came up with the concept for that when I was a teenager and was both interested in boys and had a lot of internalized misogyny and had convinced myself that I did not know how to write girls (just as I convinced myself I did not know how to write parents). The most current novel has a much more balanced cast and my main character (whom I love the most) is technically genderfluid, so yeah... I really don't care what pronouns they're using in a scene.

In conclusion, no, I don't care. I only care that characters are interesting. I hate writing boring characters who don't have rich internal lives.

Current Mood: hungry

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 4 and 5

Let's do another one of these things that no one ever comments on and probably no one cares about! Just because I'm bored and have an hour to kill.

4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

Umm.... nope?

Well, shortest answer ever.

I guess in the latest story I've been writing, which is the Potions part of Purgatory, Prophets, and Potions - it's been Teddy. Though, the story is legit about him... but there's stuff that I really wanted to put in the story that I didn't get a chance to - like, why Teddy is hung up on Vicki even though she's basically his cousin and it's weird, and stuff like that. I find Teddy pretty fascinating as a character, mainly because I've given him a complex sexual identity and, really, a complex interior life over all.

Other than that, I like my OCs - Till often ends up in the demented'verse, largely because I need a medic. Nate is also a favourite of course - to the point where i wrote a Marvel/Nate crossover for fun once.

The problem with Nate is that because the story isn't about him, but he often shows up wherever Teddy is, I sometimes fear that he comes across as a bit too perfect. I just can't explore Nate's shortcomings and interior life the way I can with the canon characters, and it's because the story is never about him.

Anyway, other fandoms, other stories? Nope... can't say that anyone ever forces their way.

ETA: Might as well answer question 5, since it's related:

5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?

Like I said - it never really happens. But, if it does, then I just look at the situation - does it make sense to have that character there? Am I giving them all the good stuff to the detriment of the other characters because I like them better? If the character doesn't make sense, or I'm overusing them, then I cut them out or cut back on what they do. It's as simple as that - it's the old (actual) "kill your darlings" rule. If you're holding onto something that is damaging the story, just because you like it and don't want to cut it, then you've got to LET IT GO. Having that one witty line, or that one awesome moment, or that one character, isn't worth it if it makes everything else suck.

Current Mood: bored

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 3

I'm avoiding work, because it's Friday, and I've worked all week, so I'm sick of it. Anyway, in an effort to feel like I was being productive, while not ACTUALLY being productive. I thought I'd do another question from this fanfic questio meme.

3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

Supernatural - oh man, this is a tough question. I like writing Dean's "voice", but I like writing Sam's "head." Sam's such an internal guy, that it's fun to get in there and poke around and explore what I think might be going on. I tried to write a Cas POV story once (it was essentially the demented'verse story Purgatory, but from Cas' POV and without the Harry Potter characters) and I think I got maybe 500 words in before I quit. I couldn't do it... mind you, if you've read Purgatory, you'll probably figure out there's a very good reason why I had such difficulty capturing my headcanon for what the inside of Cas' head is like.

Harry Potter - I love writing Teddy Lupin, or, the Teddy Lupin that I've created in the demented'verse. There's a reason he features so heavily in the latest Prophets and Potions stories. I just find him both delightful and fascinating. I think it's because I made him such an imperfect thing with self-esteem issues and constant low-level anxiety that he's a completely failure of a person.

That being said, I just wrote a one shot (not published and perhaps not quiet finished yet) that's a Draco Malfoy POV - and my god, Draco makes me laugh. I absolutely love writing him... which is kind of hilarious, because when I decided to add him into the story back in Damned Demented Demons, I was terrified of writing him. I was never a huge Draco fan in the books - I only started to find him interesting in Book 6 and 7, when Harry started picking up on the fact that Draco was experiencing a huge moral conflict. Anyway, I love my demented'verse Draco.

Sherlock - It's been a while since I've written Sherlock... I mean, in my Unfortunate Brother series, my answer would be Merlin. :P But, he's not actually in Sherlock... so, I guess it would have to be John? Maybe Sherlock... honestly, I don't know. Sherlock is difficult, because you've got to write him brilliant... so, John's easiest, because he can be of a normal level of intelligence.

Merlin - Merlin, I suppose. I mean, it's always easiest to write the person that knows what's going on. Though, if we're talking about Post-Series Resurrection fics, then the answer is Arthur.

Captain America - Bucky. I've only ever written Bucky. Eventually, I'd like to expand the one lengthy story I wrote and write it from other character's POVs, but even then, my answer will probably still be Bucky.

Okay, perfect timing to take me to my 11am meeting.

Peace out!

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 2

Help! I'm still at work and I don't want to be... so I'm going to sneakily take 10 minutes to answer another Fanfic Meme question.

And this will also tide me over until this evening, when I'll be back at late o'clock pacific time to talk about tonight's episode.

So...

Question 2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.

According to A03, I've written in:
Supernatural (18)
Harry Potter (12)
Sherlock (6)
Merlin (4)
Marvel Cinematic Universe/Captain America (1)

Now, I've also written a few drabbles in Teen Wolf, which have never made it to AO3.

Also, Harry Potter is ONLY in the form of crossovers.

I don't really write anything except crossovers anymore, in truth. It seem to be where I find the most creative fulfillment... in how to blend universes together, how different characters would react to each other. If it's a fusion, such as my Merlin&Sherlock fics, then it becomes about how to reinterpret origins and relationships within a different universe.

That's the spark of plot for me too - answering the question of "What would bring these universes together?" is what sets up my action, and "how would these characters interact" sets up my emotional story.

As much as I still love Supernatural, I don't feel much pull to write in it as a standalone anymore. I like continuing my Harry Potter crossover, but that's about the only interest I have in writing both Supernatural AND Harry Potter.

I also do have an idea that I've been warring with for a sequel to my Supernatural/Merlin crossover. As well as a vague idea for another installment to my Merlin&Sherlock fusion.

(Also, how annoying is it that I can't write Merlin/Sherlock because everyone thinks that I'm shipping them if I do that!?! It's really annoying, is the answer. Titles man, make them something other than your character's names. :P)

The only universe that I feel I could still contribute to without it being a crossover is Captain America. Part of me kind of wants to expand on The Time Traveler and make it a full length multi-character POV. Another part of me wants to just write happy AUs in preparation for Civil War and or the-future-in-general which is bound to tear my heart out and stomp on it.

But, Captain America is also my latest fandom, so it could just be that whomever is newest gets all my creative desires. We'll have to see what the next thing is.

(I've also been reading a lot of Daredevil fic... and mostly finding a lot of it lacking, but yet, as much as I love the show and wish there were better fic out there, it's not like I have any plans to write any myself.)

Ironically, I've never written in Leverage before, even though that's a huge fandom for me too. But, a friend and I recently outlined an entire episode-style case-fic idea that we're planning to write together eventually (probably when I'm done with the latest demented'verse installment.) So, that might be another fic coming in the future.

Other than that... yeah.... I've sort of stopped watching Teen Wolf (I'm undecided about whether I'll go back).

Another idea was taking something like Leverage and doing Coda fics for each episode... but I think we've all learned from my attempts at Ficlet Months that my stamina for ambitious projects is a little low.

Ack! Okay, that was 20 minutes. I have to get back to work now!

See you all later after the episode!!

Entry tags:

meme

Fanfic Question Meme - Question 1

I want to spend today writing, but felt like warming up a little... by talking about fanfic.

liliaeth has been dong this fanfic question meme thing over at her journal that I've been enjoying reading, but not commenting on (sorry liliaeth! I should really comment. Once a lurker always a lurker, I guess).

So, I thought I'd give it a go. The meme has 30 questions, but I figured I'd just go through them one at a time, every now and then.

1 - How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

The short answer, and my first instinctual answer, is Supernatural.

What was it about Supernatural that pulled me in? I think it was that the characters were actually people I could relate to. For some reason, despite the fantastical aspect of their lives, Sam and Dean were characters that seemed real, nuanced, and relatable.

Not only that, but the world they inhabited was RICH and layered, and filled with possibilities... also, we start the story in media res. This isn't a "kid goes to wizard school" story, where are main character is a clueless audience surrogate - our main characters were two people who had already been in their world for 22 years. They already knew (mostly) everything. They were already highly trained. They already had a past, trauma, love, etc. What's more, in the early seasons especially, but still to this day, there was a feeling like we were only seeing part of the story. We were only seeing SOME of the cases and we were only seeing the action - not the quiet moments between. It's why there's a popularity for "domestic" fic... it's why I go crazy for seasons where we see the boys brushing their teeth. It's why I want a car washing scene for entirely different reasons than most of fandom... I loved the idea of exploring those unseen moments, their childhood, the moments between episodes... their internal lives that, due to their upbringing, they rarely vocalize. So, that's what pulled me in.

The more complicated answer to this question is:

The first fandom I ever wrote fanfic for was Star Trek: TNG. I wrote it in my head, when I was a kid. It was a complete self-insert Mary Sue, where they found this girl who had poison in her blood that gave her magical-type powers... she could walk through walls, she was a technopath, she could create pottery out of thin air (shut-up, I liked pottery as a kid... still do.) Depending on my mood, I either had Wesley (my age-group) or Geordi (Geordi was my favourite) falling in love with her. Star Trek: TNG was also my first ship, because I totally shipped Geordi/Data before I even knew what shipping was. I just wanted them to be best friends forever and ever and have an epic romance (probably innocently non-sexual, because I was very young at the time.) (And yes, I also watched Reading Rainbow.)

The first fandom I ever wrote DOWN fanfic for was Naruto. I got a girlfriend hooked on the show (the first plot arc) and she fell in love with Kakashi. So, the next year, when we were woefully separated by an ocean, and she was in Turkey working in a job that she hated - I wrote her a story where Kakashi showed up to her bedroom and rescued her... with sexytimes. So, it was very much a Kakashi/Reader fic, though the reader was very specifically my friend and she's the only one that ever saw the fic.

But Supernatural was the first one where I thought "I want to write fanfic, and I want to post it so that the fandom can see it - and I want to participate in the fandom and these stories and be a member of this community." And why I made that decision, I don't actually know - I'd been lurking in various fandoms for years, without ever being a participant, but Supernatural was different for some reason that I've yet to quantify. Maybe, it was just that it inspired too many fic ideas for me to hold them all in my head.

Entry tags:

meme

7 Lines Challenge

So, everyone and their sister seems to have been tagged with this today, and I am no different!

franztastisch tagged me and I would never want to disappoint

franztastisch, who is awesome.

The tag-game is to share 7 lines from the 7th page of a WIP.

The only fanfic WIP I have at the moment is Part 3 of Purgatory, Prophets and Potions - so, consider this your un-betaed sneak peak at what is to come:

-----
( PPP Part 3 )
-----

Just to make things interesting though... the other WIP's I have are original fiction novels.

The first is a high-fantasy novel about an assassin who needs a new job. The only thing you have to know about this, really, is that it features a race of people who are without gender, which means that I can't use gendered pronouns for them (I do sometimes, but for character/plot reasons that are too complicated to explain here). So, for now, I'm using Spivak pronouns (the most audibly pleasing official gender-neutral pronouns IMO) which were developed in the 1970s but never caught on:

-----
( Moth )
-----

The second original fic WIP will be recognizable to some from The Novel Project that I tried to undertake some years ago. I got the first draft done back then, but sadly the story just didn't work as well as I'd hope and I shelved the thing. Recently, I brought it out again and with the help of a friend started reworking the plot:

----
( Meanwhile Road )
----

Hope you enjoyed! :)

Entry tags:

meme

10 Favourite Characters Meme

I'm stealing this from franztastisch, because I'm procrastinating doing my next SPN rewatch (which I promise I WILL totally do after this and it will be posted tomorrow.)

So, 10 favourite characters (in no particular order):

( If you click here, you can read as I talk too much... )

Okay, I swear I'll do a rewatch now and have it up by tomorrow...

Entry tags:

Correction

Okay, so I know it doesn't actually matter and no one cares - but it's been driving me crazy for three weeks, so I have to correct something...

When I did this 2014 Fandom Meme thing at the end of December, I completely forgot that Season 3b of Teen Wolf aired in 2014.

So, I would like to amend my answer to one of the questions:

Favorite Villain of 2014 - Nogitsune!Stiles. Dylan O'Brien did an amazing job with this part and I agree with others in the Fandom that he remains the ONLY Teen Wolf villain to successfully yell his lines and still remain menacing rather than tipping over into comical. Not only that, he also did an amazing job of playing a deeply traumatized Stiles, whenever he wasn't playing the Nogitsune.

Okay, that is all...

The poll for what day I release chapters of the next demented'verse installment is going well. The majority of you don't care, which is nice in its own way. Right now, I'm leaning towards Thursdays, just because Thursdays tend to be uneventful around these parts for some reason. No one thinks Tuesday or Wednesday is a good idea, and I'm glad, because those tend to be my busiest days (though I have no idea why.)

Current Mood: sleepy

Entry tags:

meme

Happy New Year! (and my year end Fic-Year In Review Meme...)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm still alive!

Christmas has been busy, and also, I've been lazy lately - but my Christmas-time job is winding down now, so hopefully I'll be able to ramp up time spent on fandom things!

Anyway, as per tradition, and even though I only wrote two full stories (and 20 ficlets or so), here is my annual Fic-Year in Review...

My favorite story this year (of my own):

I imagine the gods saying, We will make it up to you

It also wins for Most Pretentious Title - but I REALLY love that poem, you guys. I want it to be read at my funeral. Anyway, this is a Merlin fix-it, and the only explicit slash that I've ever written under the hells_half_acre name. And I really like it. I've actually read it a couple of times myself when I'm in the mood to read something satisfying... which, yeah, I'm not sure I'm supposed to admit that I read my own fics, but I totally do. It's basically why I write them - because I want to have them to read later, when I don't remember writing them as well and can enjoy them like someone else's work.

My best story this year:
Hmm... well, again, pickings are sort of slim here, so I'll go with I imagine the gods saying... again.

Story most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

The Time Traveler
(Captain America)

I don't understand why this story has so many few hits on AO3, when ever other story in that fandom gets 2x more just by dint of being posted. It also has a sort of sucky kudos to hit ratio for the fandom, which tends to over-kudos in my opinon. So, either my story is way suckier than I think it is (I kind of really like it) or it just somehow got lost in the shuffle.

I mean, maybe I should have made it longer... maybe it's too confusing... maybe I should have gone for my original idea and had sections from the POV of people who weren't brain-damaged. I don't know. It's kind of frustrating though. Maybe I should have put a sex-scene at the end.

Most fun story:

Meet Me in SoHo
(MCU/Demented'verse crossover)

I love this story so much and it's sort of beyond frustrating that it's SUCH a weird niche. It's not even a crossover with any recognizable Harry Potter characters - it's a crossover with one of my original characters who just so happens to be from the demented'verse.

The truth is that I'd kind of like to turn this into something longer - something where we get to see the time between when Clint gets Nate's phone call and when Natasha tracks them down at the gay bar.... but it'd be SO self-indulgent, because it'd basically just be for myself and

franztastisch and no one else would care.

Most suspenseful story:

Again, I don't really write suspense - but I guess I'd say The Time Traveler, just because I suppose you have the suspense of not knowing what's going on until you get to the end. (Maybe this story just sucks.... maybe I only like it because I know what's going on the whole time?)

Story with single sexiest moment:

Well, I didn't write any anonymous creepy porn this year... so I guess I'll go with I imagine the gods... because it's the only story with sex in it. Or... well, maybe I'll go with Nate and Clint making out in a club in Meet Me in SoHo, because that's pretty sexy too.

Story with single sweetest moment:

Sweet.... hmmm... I like Tony and Bucky's interactions in The Time Traveler. I think they were sweet, which is sort of a surprise considering the two characters involved.

Most unintentionally *telling* story:

Hmmm... this is a tough one this year. I guess there was that time that I got really drunk and wrote stream-of-consciousness style ficlets for nearly all of my fandoms. I mean, it's *telling* in that it tells us that I should endeavour to only write when sober. :P

"Holy crap, that's *wrong*, even for you" story:

None of them. Everything I wrote this year was pretty kosher.

Fic that shifted my perspective on the characters:

Hmm... well, Meet Me in SoHo was a catalyst in causing me to have a shocking revelation about MYSELF... but it's kind of personal, so I'm not going to talk about it here (plus I haven't figured out how to put it into words yet). Anyway, no shifted perspective on fictional characters this year, just shifting perspectives on myself.

Most disappointing story:

Well, I'm disappointed that no one likes The Time Traveler as much as I do, so I obviously failed there somehow. Other than that, just like last year, I'm disappointed that I didn't write more. Though, I should say that I've written about 24k of a novel and 18k of the next demented'verse installment, so, it's not like I've been doing absolutely nothing since June.

Hardest story to write:

Hmm... some of the June Ficlets were a struggle.

Easiest story to write:

I'd say the majority were fairly easy. Maybe Senior Auror Phil O'Shaughnessy was the easiest, because it was already something I was ruminating on because I had been mentally working out the details of the next demented'verse installment.

This year's theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

Even though I don't have health problems like I (unknowningly) had last year, my productivity still sucks? :P I DO have to figure out how to not give in to the procrastination monster... or the happiness in the short-term, misery in the long-term monster (ie: "I could work now and feel pride and satisfaction later... or I could goof off now, have a good time, and worry about how my life is a crushing failure at some later date!")

Seriously though, I don't know if this year had a theme, writing-wise.... even thinking of the stories that aren't finished yet.... I mean, I guess... I guess the theme could be how sometimes you or your loved ones can get lost a bit and no one even notices. Like, people can get so caught up in their own problems, that they don't notice any one else's - even though helping people with their problems can sometimes help you with your own. If that makes any sense. I imagine the gods saying... is sort of about that, where both Merlin and Arthur are really struggling with weighty emotional issues and they're inadvertently only making thing worse for each other while thinking that what they're doing will make things better.