dotsandlines

I didn't intend to disappear. That was a bit dramatic, wasn't it.

Hardly a week after I finished the beta version of the story, my computer went dead without warning. I got all of my data off the hard drive by other means, but I still went tablet-only for over a month. And I've been less inclined to post anything lately, be that DW, Facebook or Tumblr (which I only halfassedly use for following other people's stuff). Plus holidays. Meh.

Sooooo that happened.

I still feel too long-winded for Tumblr, so here I am once again.

Updates?

Three people out of seven billion have finished the story! \o/ A fourth started it. I appreciate every attempt. I've continued to rewrite/edit in the meantime, and outline the next story. Entertaining feedback: "I liked it, but I don't know why. Ever seen Fruits Basket? Nothing happens, but it's still great. Like that." (lightly paraphrased)

Haven't moved much fandomwise. Hubs and I are watching Angel on Netflix. It's solidly bonkers now, and not really in a way that I enjoy. But we've made it this far.

EDIT: Oh! And I started learning how to make amigurumi. I've made a couple of little ones from books so far: fortune cookies ( = circles), two penguins, and a spherical cat.

And that's what I have for now. G'night, internet.

Finished FMA: Brotherhood.

BRB, gonna find as many eyecatches as possible to use as wallpaper. They were pretty basic, but I liked them, particularly the placement in some of the episodes (often right after a character had done something awesome). ...OK, all set.

( Spoilers just in case )

Last time was the 27th, so there.

( Yep )

My genre angst screeched to a halt this morning when I realized that my most popular fanwork was a straight-up romance novel. I knew that at the time, but just didn't fully put it into words. Uh...duh.

Also in that genre: one of my three finished NaNoWriMo projects (a comedy, but still) and half of everything I wrote between ages 15-21. I am not heading toward dissolution; I'm already there.

I'm freeeee~!

I guess I worry because I don't read the genre, even though I've been writing it since adolescence. That makes me kind of a punk, and not in the cool musical sense - in the "you think you can stomp in and own everything, newcomer?" sense.

So I'll be careful of that. Otherwise, enough apologizing about genre.

Juuuust realized that if I write one or two more (longish) scenes, Sequel 2 will have about eighty contiguous, theoretically readable pages without any "and stuff goes here" gaps, AND include the beginning of a couple of key conflicts. You know, like the beginning of a story. I've been passing through it to tweak a few things and make it more readable as a stand-alone. I think it can.

Hmmmm. Uggghhh. Hmmm. Thoughts. Decisions. Dangit.

I am not thinking about publishing; I am thinking about begging for feedback from anyone who would agree to read it. Why? I don't even know. Curiosity, mostly.

I'll see how that thought looks in the cold light of day. And then write those two more longish scenes.

---

I've already rambled/ranted on FB, so I'll just mention it once here: new fandom woo! I've been listening to this all week, and caught up with the first 28 episodes. It's so charmingly cracked.

Finished the book that I didn't like.

I know what I learned today! I learned that I could write a better romance novel than ONE person on earth, if I tried to!

Ye gods.

"Jade orbs", I think. I think he un-ironically used the phrase "jade orbs", or "emerald", or "sapphire", or somesuch. And "alabaster skin", multiple times.

But here's the crux of the problem, and the larger What I Learned Today.

( Learning from books that you don't like: Empathy. Have some. )

...

In other news, I think I hatched a NaNoWriMo-able idea on the way to work this morning. I'm thinking about jumping back in this year. I'm thinking about jumping back in as a way to force myself out of the house, contradictory as that sounds. Local meetups? Writing in a coffeehouse? Something. I love my husband dearly, but I am going stir-crazy not talking to anyone else outside of work.

People terrify me, and yet I feel like hell if I don't get at least some dose of them. Go figure, huh?

(I do go to a weekly crafting meetup, but there's not much "there" there. The other members have made it abundantly clear that I could never understand their complex psychology with my puny mainstream brain, so I'd better not even try to be their friends. OK then! Can I borrow your scissors? I guess that's that.)


In other other news, fun article despite the Buzzfeedy/Crackedy title:

7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding

#4 (not everyone agrees on everything) and #7 (think about how your non-realistic factors would affect everything) are my favorites. Fun times.

You know, I should remember that I like that kind of stuff, and try something short and speculative sometime.

Close enough to the end of the month. (Ulterior motive: Wrote a bit last night, so if this keeps up, it will boost next month's count. Heh.)

( Stats )

I'm reading an ebook right now - not gonna name it, don't want to be a jerk - and I don't like it too much. I feel like the author is one of those "Women are unknowable alien creatures" types, and yet one of his narrators is a woman. So he has no idea what to do with her. Her scenes are flat and weird, and suffer greatly from omniscient breasts syndrome - even though the narrator is just doing stuff and not admiring herself rapturously in a mirror, the narration goes to ridiculous lengths panting over her assets. From her POV. When she, the character, is not paying attention to her looks at all. It's fourth-wall-breaking and bizarre.

Anyway, this ebook is bugging the hell out of me, but I am giving it a chance to see how it plays out. Also, to identify what exactly annoys me about it, and learn from that.

a) Omniscient breasts syndrome
b) Uses "unphased" instead of "unfazed", so editor is incompetent


That linked essay, BTW, also brings up an intriguing anecdote about a reader being offended because the author was "trying to make him gay" - she wrote from a straight female character's POV, including the character being attracted to men. The reader was offended/uncomfortable because he had never encountered the concept of a narrator who was not exactly like him, a straight (probably white) man. So he had no concept of reading except as a self-insert, and didn't know how to see a story from a fundamentally different person's POV. Fascinating. I tend to take that sort of thing for granted.

Notes on a goofball idea I had a couple of weeks ago - a garden corner/pocket based on The Elder Scrolls. (I haven't done it yet; just sorting out which plants in-game have real-world counterparts.)

I should be doing this on Pinterest, but I don't have an account. ...yet?

( Snp. Snp. Snpsnpsnpsnpsnp )

Apparently, there is a streaming service called Crackle that runs on the Xbox 360. There's not a whole lot on it, but it's free-with-ads. And it has a slightly different cross-section of anime than Netflix does. Includiiiiiiing Madoka Magica. Woo! So far, this show has the "dark fairy tale" aspect of Princess Tutu with the "innocent characters who are unaware that they live in a horribly dark world until it's too late" factor of Higurashi. I'm enjoying it greatly, but I'm glad it's only 12 episodes long. I'm not sure how much of this I could take.

We have finished 8 episodes so far. I called the twist in that episode. CALLED IT! *does the I-called-the-disturbing-tragic-twist dance*

I'll write more when we've finished, probably in a couple more days of viewing. Jay and I have guessed some more things which may or may not pan out.



Crackle also has The Prisoner! Which I've already seen! But that's good, because I had to rent it on disc from Netflix, and the discs kept coming in scratched. I'd rewatch it sometime if it weren't for that hassle.

Also, Nodame Cantabile and DRRR. That's...about all that catches my interest.

I am not being paid by this random website; it just runs the same few ads four or five times each per episode. In our first set of viewings, a Geico commercial had us climbing the walls. Every break, sometimes more than once per break. Stop it. I don't even have a freaking car.

Today it was all public service announcement ads. Hey, kids, make a contract with Kyubey, and then don't drink and drive, and save the manatees! Sleep tight.