fufaraw

I didn't want to make a public announcement, like this is a thing, particularly. But it's bugging me not to say anything, so here goes.

I was going to wait till draft deadline and let it shoot right past without submitting, but I know some folks will be waiting for my BB to post, and well, that's not happening this year.

I will work on both stories I was considering as submissions, and they may even see postage before 2020 BB, if one takes place. Or one or the other may be my submission for 2020 BB, we'll see.

Meanwhile, all you writers writing away, and all you artists readying your skills, best of luck! I'll be waiting to see the wonders you're planning to share with us.

Enh, could probably use a beta.

( Read more... )

   http://spn-darkside.livejournal.com/    An adult community for J2, Wincest, and dark gen fanworks

"Slip to the dark side across that line...."   You know you wanna.


(awesome banner by meus_venator)

So this seems right up my alley.


Supernatural Writing Circle

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in the homestretch to finish and turn in your draft by deadline,

May your fingers be swift and accurate, may your thoughts be clear, and may your focus be sharp. Hydrate, walk around every now and then, and don't forget to eat! You can do this! Best of luck!

When I started Hostage, I was well into the first rough draft, and everything was from Jared's point of view. Jensen was only perceived through Jared's (understandably resentful) eyes, and as Jared was the hero of his own story, he was a faultless paragon, unfairly treated.

The story *was* Jared's, and it was completely understandable that I saw it, at least to begin with, through his POV. But unless Jensen was to be merely a nyah-ha-haaaa! cardboard villain, there had to be a way to look at him through eyes other than Jared's. There had to be some motivation for him beyond arrogance and ruthless acquisition, and there had to be a reason why the people of his household held him in not only respect, but in some affection.

And then I got out of my own way and I simply told Jensen's story: his love of his land and his culture, his care for it, his acceptance of responsibility, for land, culture, and the people under his care alike. His perception and understanding, his will to do what was right--even though he felt he knew what was right, that his traditions were the right way to do things--helped to make him a human character. At least I hoped they did and would.

Giving the reader a view of Jared through Jensen's eyes brought their differences into even sharper a division, and in the end, I don't think I could have finished the story had I not found a way to give voice to Jensen's POV.

For Not All Cats, I had all these distinct scenes written or half-written. I had a chronology, a timeline the story was to develop along. But there didn't seem to be any cohesion between those distinct scenes. Even viewing it cinematically, where the camera cuts from scene to scene, left me feeling the story was fragmented, with some...element missing. And I was also having trouble inserting Jared's flashback nightmares. Until I wrote the flashbacks out, then shuffled them around like puzzle pieces until I realized that in the right order, healing and Jared coming to acceptance was apparent. Once I saw that, I had the spine of my story, to arrange the scenes along chronologically.

For 2016, everything starts out from Jensen's and his family's POV, straight into the body of the story, bringing Jared and the rest of the world in on a chronological timeline. But rereading the draft last night, I realized--again--that opening on a single scene of a dramatic reunion, then starting again, going directly forward into the meat of the story, is the way to proceed. That rather than line up events purely by chronology, bringing them in at strategic points as illumination of motive and behavior will help to heighten suspense, anticipation, and guesswork (I hope) from the reader. The way forward seems suddenly clear. (Beware, there may be dragons!)

At least, this time I didn't wait until mere weeks before my posting date to figure out how to arrange my ducks.

716 of 20K,+/-. Yay?

( Somebody stop me! )

Ask away. I may actually answer a few of these on my own, because I'm just that self-involved. *g*

In other news, I traditionally use those orange candy pumpkins and candy corn in my Halloween decor, because I'm classy like that. OH shopped, but could find only a smallish bag of corn, and a bag containing regular corn, that blighted, wrong, chocolate-tipped corn, and pumpkins all mixed together. I spent a bit of time this morning...sorting my corn and pumpkins. The corn goes in the black iron kettle on the coffee table with the crystal ball, The Essential Supernatural oversized hardcover, the spellbook box, the skull and flying witch votive cups, my second pine needle besom (the first stays on a wee shelf by the back door), dark-themed books by friends (Dark's Tale, Deb Grabien, Gothic Charm School, Jillian Venters, Sam the Bat by Allyson Beatrice) a copy of Epitaphs from the Very Best Old Graveyards, and Snoopy's It Was a Dark and Stormy Night--the last one's gang agley, though, and I know not where--and the Halloween and Deviant Moon tarot decks. The pumpkins get scattered amid other decorations, and the blighted with chocolate corn goes in a bowl and gets shoved at unwary guests: "Eat it! Go on, it won't hurt you, I promise!" Stupid unnatural chocolate corn.

It is not surprising news that fanfiction writers are highly underappreciated.

There’s something wrong with the numbers: let’s take a popular fic with almost 4k hits. For let’s say 700 readers, it will get about 50 comments and 300 Kudos (those numbers are just an example, sometimes it’s worse than that). Maybe I’m being too kind, maybe not, but things stay the same; there’s something wrong here. Can you see it?

It takes us days, weeks, sometimes months to write a story for you. We write for ourselves yes, but we also write to share. We write to offer you content about your favourite characters. We write to bring our and your ships to life. It takes you a fraction of second to leave a Kudos, ten seconds to one, two or a few minutes to leave a comment.

And here lies our problem: there’s no proper sharing if there’s no proper feedback. An author not getting comments is generally a sad author. If I didn’t get feedback I’d wonder what’s the point in keeping on writing. A comment makes a writer’s day, most of the time even motivates them to write more.

Another important thing thrandythefabulous and I noticed: why on Earth do so many readers don’t comment (even kudos) if the fic has been up for a little more than a week or two? Why? Your feedback is still welcomed and much appreciated.

We write for ourselves, but also we write for you. And sadly, many readers are being quite… ungrateful, when giving feedback is the least they can do to thank the people offering them stories for free.

So, before we get started on our little day, let’s talk about comments:

It doesn’t matter if other readers already said what you wanted to say, we’ll still love reading it again in your words.

It doesn’t matter the fic has been up for weeks or months or years; comments on those ones are unexpected and so, it makes them ever better.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have much to say, we’ll be glad anyway.

Most authors leave the comment section open to people who don’t have an Archive of Our Own (AO3) account, which means you can still… comment! How amazing is that.

That brings us to our little Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day.

The point of this day is simple; on August 21st, writers and readers alike would go on AO3 (or any fanfiction website really), on Tumblr, and leave a comment on their favourite fics (even the fics they enjoyed!) and/or send their authors a message about their works.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve already or never commented. It doesn’t matter if the author doesn’t know about this post. It doesn’t matter if the author already knows how much you love their work.

Just let writers know you love the fics they write for you, simple as that!

And well, don’t forget to keep leaving a Kudos and a comment in the future, and make writers happy!