Scribbler's Scribbles

Why I write fic

Scribbler — Fri, 14 May 2010 09:46:03 +0000

Seen… well, all over the place, by now. In different variants, due to people adding their own reasons.

Bold any reasons that apply to you, strike out any that don’t (if you feel like it), and add three (or more, or less) reasons of your own to the bottom.

REASONS I WRITE FANFIC

~~1. To explore themes that I don’t get to see in mass media using characters I love.~~
2. Because it’s fun.
3~~. Because mass media does a crappy job of representing my race and/or gender and/or sexual orientation.~~
~~4. Because I can get more people aboard my ship writing a story than a manifesto.~~ (More of a beneficial side effect than a reason…)
5. Because TV science-fiction doesn’t explore its science-fiction premises in enough depth.
6. Because it’s a gift I can give a stranger and know they will enjoy it.
7. Because I resonate emotionally with the characters what I read and watch, and want to find out why by writing about it.
8. Because every tale is a universe, often with fascinating nooks and crannies that the original author never explored.
9. Because I’ve made some of my best and dearest friends through this very wacky hobby.
10. Because the world the creator made is vast, and I want to see more of it.
11. Because writing as a communal experience is amazing.
12. Because I can.
13. Because every time I write something, I learn more about writing. And myself. And my readers.
14. Because someone can find it and know that there are other people out there who respond to media that way.
~~15. Because writing porn and having someone say, "this is hot!" is an empowering experience.~~
16. Because I get so much enjoyment from reading fan fiction that I want to contribute to the community by providing enjoyment for other fans.
17. When I become interested in particular actors and/or characters, sometimes I want to explore them in different contexts than their canons would ever allow.
18. I enjoy writing but I feel ambivalent about trying to get published; writing fan fiction frees me by removing the pressure to sell from consideration.
~~19. Because it makes me feel powerful to take stories not about me or people like me, and make them about me or people like me.~~
20. Because I think ‘what if.’
21. Because sometimes you just need kitten!fic.
22. Because it isn’t the ‘heroes’ that are interesting to me a lot of the time, and secondary/minor characters usually take a back seat by definition.
23. Because I like to weave bits of canons together and know that my target audience can see those things, get the references, the catchphrases
24. Because I want to
25. Sometimes I have to write a story because no one else will.
26. I like the creative challenge.
27. Writing can be cathartic, and if it entertains someone at the same time, all the better.

And new:
28. Because it’s addictive and I can’t not do it
29. Because canon got it All Wrong, and it’s up to me to Fix It!
30. Because the stories I write are pleasing to my id.

Hmm. Clearly, writing fic is All About Me, and not so much about other people, while world betterment (or even self-improvement) is apparently the last item on my fic-writing agenda.

Tutorial

Scribbler — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:06:15 +0000

First, if you haven’t done so yet, go read thefourthvine’s [Rant]: Professional Writers vs. The People Who Love Their Work, Round Umpty-Snout, which is the most awesomest comeback I’ve read so far.

Second, OMG, I "finished" the first draft for the Anna AU monsterfic-from-Hell yesterday! 80,000 words in so far, and that’s before revisions. *gulps*

Third, I figured out the best way (for me) to format and download fic onto my eReader, which I want to share in case someone else might find it useful (note: so far, I’ve only downloaded from AO3, and still have to try out the method for other archives/formats*).

I’m using the PDF format, since that seems to work well enough with the reader, and I can handle it like any other file.

To create PDFs that fit well on the reader, I use Cute PDF Writer, but this should work with any Print-to-PDF software.

Create a new, custom-sized form (Go to Control Panel** -> Printers and Faxes. Choose Server Properties from the File menu). In my case, 85×115 mm works perfectly; your screen may be different.
Set the print form you created as the standard form for Cute PDF Writer: Go to Control Panel -> Printers and Faxes. Right-click on Cute PDF Writer -> Preferences for printing -> Advanced -> Paper size, and choose the one you created.
Next, the fun part: find the story you want on AO3, and make sure you select View entire work.
In your browser, go to Print preview, set all margins to 0, and zoom level to 80% (note: this gives me a pleasantly sized font format that works well without resizing — and thus reflowing the document on my reader. It’s eReader and user dependent what works best for you, so experiment a bit….)

Various and sundry

Scribbler — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:39:48 +0000

Went back to the treadmills of work last Monday, after having two lovely weeks of holiday, one of which was spent in the UK visiting the awesome tanaqui. The workplace is still filled with Stoopid People Who Should Know Better But Don’t (aka SPWSKNBBD). Cause, really, expecting a full-blown plan for a full-blown re-organizing of all the staff functions to be written in six weeks? When management has been heehawing about this on and off for years? And now it needs to be done LIEK NAO? They’re insane (and that stuff is hard to deal with for people like me, who prefer to think things through, and make plans based on Earth logic instead of power plays and office politics… Urgh!).

Ah well, there’s fanfiction to keep me sane, at least. Although, apparently, that’s like rape/adultery/white slavery/illegal/whathaveyou…. Well, metafandom has some good responses to that, so no need for me to get into that further (although, supposedly adult pro writers throwing a hissy fit because someone else dared get into their sandbox and play with their dolls will never not be funny).

Speaking of fic, despite being away for over a week, in April I did manage to produce some 15,000 more words of Anna AU, the Jericho story that nobody but and, apparently, some Mysterious Commenter, will read. Entire thing is around 75K now… The good news is that I’m thisclose to finishing it, I think. The not so good news is that the current final scene is probably more suited to the start of the sequel… Yes, the Story That Ate My Soul is gonna need a sequel.

Also, I’m considering to stop crossposting to LJ altogether. Is anyone still reading me over there?

Fic stuff

Scribbler — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:58:37 +0000

Apparently, I wrote over 7,000 words of draft fic over the Easter weekend. That’s not bad at all! What is, is that it’s for the Jericho AU monster fic that’s looking to be even longer than The Long Road Home, and that’ll likely be read by only one person…. A good thing that ROI is not terribly important in fanfic!

Share your fic recs…?

Scribbler — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:55:31 +0000

At some time or other (since they’ve just postponed the delivery date… ) I’m expecting to receive My First E-reader.

While I won’t use it for DRM’ed books, out of sheer principle, I’m considering buying non-DRM books at some point. However, my main purpose in getting an e-reader is to be able to read fanfic away from a computer screen. More specifically, long!fic*. I don’t seem to have the patience to read those at a desk, or even when using a netbook. When there’s a keyboard, I’m gonna do stuff: write, chat, edit, surf the web, etc.

I’m thinking (hoping!) that having a proper eInk screen and a handy portable device will fix that.

But.

I need actual fic-to-read. I do have some long!fics bookmarked or Delicious’ed (that is so a verb…), but I can do with more! Right now, I’m just collecting links, since I have no idea what format works best for the e-reader (too many options! not enough info!), but it’d be nice to have a goodly store of fics lined up by the time I’ll actually hold the device in my hands.

So, rec me long!fic! Gen, het, Action/adventure, Drama, Romance, whatever. I may even consider slash, depending on the pairing and author. I’d definitely like to read in fandoms I’ve written for, as well as plenty of other fandoms, like Farscape, Firefly, etc….

Ah heck, just rec me whatever has tickled your fancy in the past. In long!fic, I find, it’s less important to know all the intricacies of canon to enjoy the story than in shorter stories.

So, your recs…?

* Long!fic is anything bigbang’ish and over, so 20K words or more. The longer, the better….

lightbulb moment

Scribbler — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:10:31 +0000

I’ve been struggling on a Jericho AU for the past weeks, that, although over 30K in word count already, refused to feel comfortable. What was the point of the story? Why did the characters act the way they did? For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what the answers to those questions should be, and thus muddled on unhappily.

Only today, while trying to hammer out a bit of missing canon with did the coin finally drop: those 12-14 hours missing in the canon timeline are, while mostly irrelevant to canon, crucial to my AU story, setting the stage for the entire “fork” and the relationship between the two main characters.

I suspect (hope!) that the story will now sit better with me when I’m working on it, even if this means I probably need to rewrite some of those 30K words.

What’s more, I suspect filling that blank is also going to help a lot with figuring out the rest of the plot for Reorientation!verse….

End of Year Fic Roundup

Scribbler — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:55:58 +0000

Stories that were posted (if not necessarily written) during the second half of 2009 (all links go to AO3)*:

Jericho (82,602 words)

SNAFU (Just Like Always) (1,706 words, crossover with The Kill Point)
Be All My Sins Remembered (1,604 words)
New Horizons (3,068 words)
Jake ♥ Emily (2,898 words)
No Quarter (2,773 words)
Mimi Clarke’s Seven Tips For A Better Sex Life (1,721 words)
Not So Different (1,413 words)
Always “Be Prepared” (1,498 words)
The Harder You Try (1,077 words)
Lucky Man (1,623 words)
A Twist In The Tail (2,714 words)
Tipping Point (2,431 words)
A Waste Of Time (4,191 words)
The Heat Of Winter (1,955 words)
This Ever Changin’ World (822 words)
Spiderman (1,589 words)
On A Woman’s Mind (1,002 words)
Though The Heavens Should Fall (3,164 words)
Three Is Company (1,897 words)
Reorientation (3,244 words)
Devil’s Due (40,212 words)

The Kill Point (3,707 words)

SNAFU (Just Like Always) (1,706 words, crossover with Jericho)
With The Lights Out (635 words)
Pearls Of Wisdom (1,366 words)

Stargate Atlantis (805 words)

Lemons For Lemonade (805 words)

Supernatural (24,781 words)

Journey’s End (18,810 words)
Lost And Found (1,677 words)
The Writing On The Wall (587 words)

Total word count for July-December 2009: 106,482**

Word count of works posted in the first half of 2009: ~ 80,059

Total for 2009: 186,541…!!** No wonder the muses got burned out a little toward the end. And a big, BIG Thank You to Tanaqui, who beta’ed most (and probably all) for me.

For comparison’s sake, word count of fic posted in the last few years:

2008: 73,811
2007: 60,512
2006: 128,653
2005: 10,370*

* Since I can only be certain of when fic got posted, and stuff gets written all the time, then put on ice, sometimes for months or even a year, the numbers do not accurately reflect actual writing. 2006, for example, includes The Long Road Home, most of which was written over the course of 2005, while 2009 includes two long stories (Journey’s End and The Price Of Betrayal) that were both mostly written in previous years.

** AO3 counts words differently from Open Office, and generally seems to end up with a lower number, so the actual amount of words for this year is probably higher. Or lower, depending on which system you want to put your faith in .

Fic count

Scribbler — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:55:32 +0000

I finally finished uploading all my fic to AO3. As usual, when going over old stuff, it was at times cringe-worthy (I am so grateful for AO3’s backdating option, ’cause now I can point at the date and say, “See that? I was young and stupid and didn’t know any better…”), and a pleasant surprise (“I wrote that?”). The amount of cliche-driven fic is also staggering: Sex pollen! Mpreg! Snowbound! Dialog-only! A dozen Fork in the Road-AU’s! First person POV! Second person POV! Dub-con! Non-con! Slash! Het! Gen! Threesomes! Moresomes! Etc.

Anyway, with all my fic in one place (’cause ff.net doesn’t accept all ratings), and no double postings of crossover (’cause my personal archives are separate, fandom-specific ones, so crossovers get posted once in each), I can finally crunch some numbers…

Published since April 1999: 205 fanfic stories
Fandoms: 18
Total word count: 833,000 words
Shortest: 100 words
Longest: 95,000 words.

50! Stories! And writing woes….

Scribbler — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:36:44 +0000

A couple days ago, I posted my fiftieth (yes, five-oh!) story for SPN. Now, for some people, that might not be much of an achievement, but it does make Supernatural my most prolific fandom by far! Even more surprising, seeing how the muses still are extremely reluctant to come out and play–except for the occasional foray into wing!fic or weird second person POV episode retellings (neither published as of yet)….

So, I’m trying to adhere to the credo that you can fix anything but a blank page, and try to write something ~~every~~ most days. Eight hours of crazy!work!stress isn’t exactly conducive to much fic writing, however, so it’s mostly in the weekends and sometimes on Wednesdays, when I work half days.

Anyway, if someone sees my wayward muses wandering about somewhere? Please point them over thisaway, cause I miss them…. Fortunately, tanaquific is a busybee writer at the moment, and is keeping me well amused with stories that are most id-pleasing.

Fic times

Scribbler — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:37:15 +0000

Writer’s block hasn’t entirely resolved itself (or the Muses are still absent due to me having been on holiday, which always makes it hard to get back into the game), but even so, I have fic!

Fandom: Jericho
Title: Lucky Man
Rating: General
Characters: Jake/Heather
Word count: 1,600
Summary: Jake Green is a lucky man: he has a wife that knows him better than he knows himself. And she has a surprise for him.

***

Written quite a while ago, when I still had muses, but collecting dust for some time while I worked out a couple of other things. Inspired by thoughts about the Roadrunner.

***

Fandom: Jericho
Title: The Harder You Try
Rating: Teen
Characters: Beck
Word count: 1,000
Summary: In spite of Major Beck’s best efforts, things are going from bad to worse, and the murder of John Goetz will bring everything to a head. Even so, Beck feels obliged to give Jericho a last chance.

***

Written at the height of the writer’s block phase, if you can believe that. Inspired by the cliche_bingo prompt Second Person Narrative, apparently 2nd POV wasn’t enough for the muse, she also added present tense, both styles I hardly ever use.

I can remember writing 2nd POV only once, years ago, but that was for a Choose Your Own Adventure-type story, which by nature addresses the reader as a participant in the story. This, on the other hand, has no “reader = you”, so it was a strange, if interesting, experience.

***

Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Lost And Found
Rating: General
Characters: Dean
Word count: 1,700
Summary: Dean has never noticed anything special about his amulet. But when he loses it during a hunt, he feels compelled to go back for it.

***

My submission for spn_summergen, this was finished quite a while ago, in mid-July, to be exact. Long before the writer’s block strike But now that the master list has gone up, I can finally claim it as mine!

And speaking of spn_summergen, make sure you also check out the wonderful story that kinsinger wrote for me, Music: Sam was making his way through the endless fields of Iowa when the cassette player in the Impala finally gave out with a loud crackle of static. She did a great job with my prompt “Something to do with Sam’s iPod that Dean finds in the Impala”. Go, read!