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eye_of_a_catI cannot find my iPod charger anywhere. This means that tomorrow's seven-hour bus journey is going to be music-less, and I'm also less likely to get a whole seat to myself by making sure that I'm listening to really, really loud music when people are looking for a place to sit. (Otherwise, they just automatically sit next to me - I have no idea why.)
So, I could take a notebook and write fic during the journey. I haven't written fic out longhand since my First Ever story, which never did get finished. I'm still sort of proud of that fic, since it had a marginally good plot which was Mary Sue-free, but it was a shameless angstfest with practically zero characterisation. I wrote it just after I first discovered the net, and found out what fanfic was, and it's very similar to the first fic I ever read.
That first fic I read is still online. I loved that fic - I printed it out, and showed it to all my friends, and cooed lovingly over how absolutely excellent the author must be. Yesterday, I went back and looked at it through the jaded eyes of experience, and ouch. The writer is as good as I remember she was, but the story is just as much of a shameless angstfest as the one I wrote straight after reading it. It has a fandom main character, a tough ex-military guy, crying himself to sleep while hugging a teddy-bear. A teddy-bear. I had no taste whatsoever.
On the other hand, I was a newbie, and I was still awed by the whole idea of fanfic. Hey, people are writing all this stuff about my favourite programmes! They must be real authors!... and so on. The site which the story was hosted on had a discussion board, and after reading the story, I posted a shy newbieish comment about how much I was loving the site and how great it was that all these wonderful authors had written such great stories. The board double-posted my comment, and the moderator bit my head off. I still remember her comment now, about how I should not clog up the board with double-posts because they'd have to be deleted, and "that takes up time that us REAL people don't have to spare."
At the time, I was mortified, and skulked away to lurk for a long time. Now, I think she was just being a bitch. I still don't understand the comment about 'REAL' people, unless newbies aren't human, but I think possibly it was a jab at the ID I was posting under ('Red5'). She was posting under a net name, too, but since hers was pretending to be a real name - a very Mary Sue-ish real name, with too many Ns and As for a mere mortal - possibly she didn't think we'd noticed that. Or maybe she didn't think Star Wars fans counted as 'real'. Who knows?
It might be a nice change to try writing fic out longhand, but I'd be worried that whoever ends up sitting next to me will be looking over my shoulder or will ask me questions about it. But! I've just thought - I could hide my notebook behind an academic-looking book, and scribble away while looking busy and professional. I am Teh Sneaky.
So, I could take a notebook and write fic during the journey. I haven't written fic out longhand since my First Ever story, which never did get finished. I'm still sort of proud of that fic, since it had a marginally good plot which was Mary Sue-free, but it was a shameless angstfest with practically zero characterisation. I wrote it just after I first discovered the net, and found out what fanfic was, and it's very similar to the first fic I ever read.
That first fic I read is still online. I loved that fic - I printed it out, and showed it to all my friends, and cooed lovingly over how absolutely excellent the author must be. Yesterday, I went back and looked at it through the jaded eyes of experience, and ouch. The writer is as good as I remember she was, but the story is just as much of a shameless angstfest as the one I wrote straight after reading it. It has a fandom main character, a tough ex-military guy, crying himself to sleep while hugging a teddy-bear. A teddy-bear. I had no taste whatsoever.
On the other hand, I was a newbie, and I was still awed by the whole idea of fanfic. Hey, people are writing all this stuff about my favourite programmes! They must be real authors!... and so on. The site which the story was hosted on had a discussion board, and after reading the story, I posted a shy newbieish comment about how much I was loving the site and how great it was that all these wonderful authors had written such great stories. The board double-posted my comment, and the moderator bit my head off. I still remember her comment now, about how I should not clog up the board with double-posts because they'd have to be deleted, and "that takes up time that us REAL people don't have to spare."
At the time, I was mortified, and skulked away to lurk for a long time. Now, I think she was just being a bitch. I still don't understand the comment about 'REAL' people, unless newbies aren't human, but I think possibly it was a jab at the ID I was posting under ('Red5'). She was posting under a net name, too, but since hers was pretending to be a real name - a very Mary Sue-ish real name, with too many Ns and As for a mere mortal - possibly she didn't think we'd noticed that. Or maybe she didn't think Star Wars fans counted as 'real'. Who knows?
It might be a nice change to try writing fic out longhand, but I'd be worried that whoever ends up sitting next to me will be looking over my shoulder or will ask me questions about it. But! I've just thought - I could hide my notebook behind an academic-looking book, and scribble away while looking busy and professional. I am Teh Sneaky.
