Tag-Archive for ◊ writing ◊

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• Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

I have actually written a complete scene of fic.

I know it’s shocking – but yes, I have written it. It’s in long-hand, and it’s horribly messy at the moment between crossing mistakes out and the fact that I was trying to write on my lap while sitting on a bench on the train. I’m going to entertain where this one goes for a bit, and see if it goes anywhere. :)

Right now, it’s Ten and Jack, post TW:Children of Earth & DW:Planet of the Dead. I honestly can’t tell you where it’s going because I don’t know yet. Right now, it’s just a humble little solitary scene. But that’s a good thing… it’s something.

I’ve also received some intriguing – and diverse – prompts from sleepingmermaid, blanhe2, lillibetm3, and punkandpearls (via Twitter). So those will help me get some creative writing juices again. Hooray!

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• Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

*waves to new f-list people* Welcome guys! Nice to meet you all… hopefully we’ll have some great chats via LJ in the future. I’ll toss a new intro post up later this morning once I have some coffee… I don’t think I’ve updated the thing for about three years anyway. :)

Thoughts on the holidays will probably be a project this afternoon. I have a bunch of things on my mind, but I’m not yet awake enough for them.

I’m at work this morning – it’s dead quiet here, both at our office and in downtown Boston in general. Sometimes I wonder why companies are open at all during this mini-week between Christmas and New Years. Only half of the people go to work – and let’s be honest, it’s because they have to. It’s bitter cold outside, there’s really not a lot of work to do (when the “I’ll make myself look busy” plans clear through on the first day of four, there’s a problem)… ugh, I’m just… bored.

If I weren’t weirded out by the idea, I’d scribble fanfic at my desk. Maybe I’ll pull a notebook and do that longhand. I dunno.

But two more days of it… *groan*

I started skimming my friends list this morning, and I’m wondering what’s up. Out of the first 20 friends posts? Eight were “I’m doing a friends cut” thing. Instinctively, I replied to a couple, and got a nasty feeling in my stomach. I decided not to read anymore at that point. Rather than deal wtih what essentially are roll call posts, I think I’ll just state this: If you decide to cut me from your flist, yes, I’ll be a bit bummed about it. But it’s your journal and your decision regarding who you want to read. I’m not going to grovel to stay on someone’s friends list, though.

Anyway.

Some quick non-spoilery thoughts on the recent Doctor Who episode…

I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. I did laugh at times. I gasped a couple times. But mostly I just feel “meh” about it. I felt the pacing was odd. I felt like there’s a lot of stuff thrown into the story that as of now makes no sense. BUT… it’s the first of a two-parter, and there’s lots of extra time in the second part of this thing, so hopefully it all comes together. So mostly I’m just reserving judgment until I see the conclusion of it this weekend.

Can I say, though – that BBC-A is awesome? Not only are they airing them the day after they broadcast in the UK, but they’re airing the episodes uncut on the first broadcast and just expanding the air time to fit our stupid American commercial blocks.

Even better? Erich and I now have BBC-A in HD. Which is glorious.

I seriously hope this quick turnaround continues with the new episodes for series 5. :)

And oh my god… a project at work. I’m shocked and stunned.

So, to help me once I’m bored again… toss me some fic prompts and I’ll tinker with them. I’m open to Doctor Who, Torchwood, X-Files… hell, I might even attempt some West Wing or Star Trek (TNG or DS9). Maybe I’ll have some drabbles or fic later this week, if you don’t mind unbetaed drafts.

:)

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• Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Honestly? Things are pretty good. I’m having some usual depression that occurs around the holidays (mostly dealing with the obnoxious folks who argue against saying Happy Holidays and who shove “Jesus is the Reason”). But other than that, it’s been good.

Stitching has helped me reground myself. I’m feeling more relaxed and on top of things. I’m finally breaking out of the leftover cough from whooping cough that slammed me in late September (seriously… three farking months. UGH).

I’m starting to tinker with writing again. Before I get deep into completing my Support Stacie obligations, I’m going to run through some other ideas. :) Some may just come this week – I have the entire week off from work, and I’m feeling the need to play.

I’m celebrating Yule tomorrow. With the snow outside, it may make an outdoor ritual a bit cold… but I may go out anyway. If not, a cozy evening in my office is in store for me now that the support for my altar table has been found.

Erich, Matt and I are heading to my Mom’s for Christmas, so I’m very, very happy that BBC-A is showing the Who episodes on only a day delay. :) I’m back in geek fever again, and it’s taking a much happier, healthier track this time.

So stay tuned. I’m expecting to be posting a lot more come 2010.

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• Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

I have two four day weekends in a row. So. Happy. And I need them badly.

So a couple things…

If you’d like a card from me and haven’t dropped me a line, please go [HERE] and drop me a line on the form. It’s private and only I’ll see it, but in years past I had stuff all over the place. This will keep me better organized this year. And my address will pop up after you fill it out – or just let me know that you have a signup on your journal, and I’ll go find it.

And yes, I send internationally. In years past, I was a queen of penpalling. (I just may have sent a postal worker’s child to college with what I spent on stamps). Overseas postage and I are quite familiar. :)

——-

It’s a semi-working vacation this week for me. Mostly just little errands and chores to do around the house. I’d like to keep Thanksgiving weekend as work-free as possible, since I’m cooking.

I’m also getting an ornament finished up and mailed to my secret-swap partner (who is overseas… so I need to do it quickly to give it mailing time before Christmas). The stitches are done. Tomorrow morning will be adding beads and sewing it together into the little mini-pillow shape it will take, and then adding some decorative braiding and such to finish it off. I’m already proud of it, and I’ll probably make another for myself later.

Since I’m certain that my swap partner’s not on LiveJournal, I’ll post a finished photo of it here under a lock, just to make sure it stays a surprise. I’ll do an open post once I know she’s received it.

——–

Other stuff this weekend… on Friday night we’re going up to see A Christmas Carol being performed by a Catholic girls’ high school in the area. Our best man is directing the show and his mom is the musical coordinator. The school’s drama department is very solid – they do impressive productions. So that’ll be fun.

Immediately after, we’re driving down to Brewster, MA on Cape Cod for the annual Cape LAN – only it’s not really a computer LAN anymore since no one can afford to keep updating computers. Now it’s a weekend for Erich to run a session of his d20 campaigns with the guys and gives me a chance to do a trial run-through on some of the food for Thanksgiving.

Of course the biggest goal for me this time around is… to not get sick. Every year – and I mean EVERY YEAR – I’ve managed to get sick during the Cape LAN weekend. By about mid-day Saturday, I have the sniffles and I’m curled up feeling miserable up in the bedroom to keep myself away from everyone else. After dealing with the aftermath of whooping cough now for two months (that hit me for my LAST vacation days) ? Yeah… not really enthused to go through another round, particularly since I’m still getting the occasional coughing bout out of nowhere.

I’m looking forward to it, though. I’m going to bring my stitching and my laptop and do some tinkering with both crafty stuff and some fic (and rewatch Who, and see where the weekend takes me.

—-

So finally – I need a catch up. I have days to read fanfic. I have a piece from wendymr that was written just as I got hit by whooping cough that I need to catch up on. But what else since like… July… do I need to catch up on?

That’s it… going off to get stuff done now. :)

- Mel.

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• Monday, August 03rd, 2009

I made some progress on my fanfic, but as has been habit the last few weeks… I get a few great ideas which then evaporate as soon as I try to put words to virtual paper. *sigh* Still plugging, but I’m frustrated. And the thing is with this particular project… the 10,000 word limit is not the issue here. Nor is characterization. It’s just progression that’s not working right. And if I’m not satisfied with it, I definitely don’t feel right presenting it.

I’d signed up for the September edition of supportstacie, but I might pull back out of it. I’m just a bit demoralized about my writing and may just need to take a step back. We’ll see. I still have about a month to figure out what’s what. I think the biggest problem I’m having is that I hate feeling irresponsible when it comes to these deadlines. Maybe it’s the journalism degree, maybe it’s just my personality, but I absolutely despise when I’m late on things. Even though I’ve been busy with work and house projects and all, I just feel like an irresponsible git. And what’s happening is that I’m making it even harder on myself because I’m trying to get things done and beating myself up for being so slow at the same time. It’s stupid, and I know it’s stupid… and yet I can’t seem to break myself of the habit.

One way or the other, I won’t quit writing completely. I’m thinking I may just need to do some pressure-free stuff for a while and tinker with some ideas, or start something new. I have to admit that I’m itching to do some cross-stitch, too, but I won’t let myself when I still have obligation fic to write. One way or the other, I don’t plan on writing much this winter at all. I have a bunch of stitching projects in various stages of completion, and I’m feeling the need to get lost with my needle again with no real timetable.

Anyway, we’ll see.

Erich wrapped up the second coat on the walls in the kitchen. Once everything had dried, we determined that it did need an additional coat. All’s now done, and we’re getting the hands-and-knees style floor scrubbing in with the TSP cleaner, but at this point, I may just stick to some basic mopping until the weather cools down. I don’t handle the humidity well at all under normal circumstances, and that kind of heavy cleaning makes me a bit nervous in this weather. Scrubbing the bathroom yesterday had me nearly fainting by the end. :P

Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent on the couch right in front of the AC, cooling it. I caught up on my Netflix and took a time out from things. Watched Zodiac, which was pretty good, and then watched the first DVD of Roots, which I’d somehow never seen (which is one of those oh… EVERYONE’S IN THIS miniseries). It’s still odd to see LeVar Burton’s eyes and how bright and expressive they are. Too many years watching ST:TNG, and not enough with Reading Rainbow, apparently.

Ah well… off to a day at reception. Maybe a few more scene tinkerings. I will get this thing posted… I will.

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• Wednesday, July 08th, 2009

After a long and interesting little conversation with wendymr last night, I started musing about writing a bit. And this probably will make no sense to anyone but me, but meh – it’s a Real Blog Entry(tm) about something on my mind.

I mentioned to her, and I think I’ve mentioned it here and there that the big issue with wiggiemomsi‘s fic for Support Stacie is my pacing. After doing a draft, I wondered what the point of the whole thing was, given that it apparently could be solved and wrapped up so easily.

So now I’m working on stretching it out, adding a bit more suspense, and just some… oomph… into it. That, of course, has resulted in snipping some bits, altering others, etc. It’s amazing how organic the writing process is. Kind of corny, perhaps, but it’s much like the tomatoes I have growing on my patio – little twists and turns, bending around obstacles, rushing forward when there’s freedom.

It’s getting there, and while I’m irritated with myself about how long it’s taking, I’m also much happier with where it’s going. Better to turn out something I’m pleased with than rush it and not be happy with the result, IMHO. Unlike those X-File fics from years past that I tend to wince at when I reread, I’d like to have a few years where I can be proud of what I’ve written here.

The difficulty is avoiding writing total cliched crap. I realize that it’s a relative term, and that to the majority of fic readers out there my writing is still crap, whether due to topic or style or dialogue or whatever. I’ll be honest – the fear of failure is paralyzing sometimes. And not that cliched fic doesn’t have it’s place. I enjoy quite a bit of it, and I’ll admit to occasionally feeling the desire to just sink into it myself because (again, in theory, but not necessarily practice) it’s familiar.

BUT… I’m also of the mindset that I want to try to find new avenues to write about, where I’ve found an absence of fic. No idea is truly new, of course, but I’ll try my best to find a way to look at something fresh if I’m able.

Again – fear of failure. I has it.

So in conclusion, I suppose – Wiggie’s fic is a tomato plant, occasionally stunted by fear.

Makes sense, right?

;)

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• Tuesday, July 07th, 2009

So… the rain is back. *sigh* It’s chucking down pretty hard at the moment. And of course, this is the day I didn’t bring an umbrella. You’d think I’d be keeping one on me at all times after three plus weeks of near-daily rain, but no… that would be far too logical. Thankfully I do have the presence of mind to keep a spare in my file drawer here at the office. It’s a crappy one, but in a pinch it’ll do.

Loved Torchwood last night. Not going to discuss it at this point – I want to take in the entire series first. So I shall be spoiler-free until probably Friday night, unless ZOMG TORCHWOOD IS IN CARDIFF!!! is a spoiler now (based on fandom experiences, it would not surprise me). I will say that it’s very strange watching it now and recognizing places I’ve been, especially those stupid little insignificant places that mean nothing except a “hey! I recognize that!” Erich was feeling similarly amused last night.

The Tall Ships have started to arrive in Boston. So far there’s only one. It’s absolutely gorgeous, just sitting there dead-center in Boston Harbor. I’m hoping the weather will be nicer later this week so I can get some photos. I’ll stay late one night and wander down to Falcoln Pier where I presume they’ll be moored (given that it’s the cruise ship dock they were at last time).

Tonight’s plan is Torchwood, Deadliest Catch, and writing. The Support Stacie fic moves ever forward.

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• Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

I think we’re up to day… 16? 17? of this gloomy early-spring weather. It’s getting a bit tiresome, even if my yard is loving it. San Francisco-like fog is rolling in over Boston Harbor. It’s pretty, but after two weeks of grey skies, I need a good dose of sunshine.

Random things…

Erich’s now the temporary guild leader of our WoW guild. The normal GL is on vacation for a month while her family visits her in Australia, so Erich’s taking over to maintain stuff while she’s gone. He’s already been having some fun joking about infinite power.

Our guild went through 7 brand new bosses in Naxx this weekend. All but two we destroyed on our first attempts, and we managed to clear Naxx for the first time last night. It was a great feeling. Amazing that we’ve learned the entire dungeon in essentially only 13 sessions max.

Support Stacie writing continues to progress. Still writing longhand and drafting. I’m looking forward to a relatively quiet long weekend to hopefully get the draft completed and ready for beta review. I think I’m just about there. Just a few transitional scenes to fix pacing and tie up loose ends, I think. (yay!)

Back to catching up on others’ entries… :)

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• Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Dunno why I haven’t been up to writing in my LJ these days. I suppose it’s just life keeping me busy. *shrug*

Support Stacie progress has been updated. I’m starting to feel much, much better about my progress: http://measi.livejournal.com/530017.html

I’ve been making a lot more progress for wiggiemomsi when I write longhand these days. Most of it’s been English-in-Cyrillic lately, which seems to shut up my inner editor. I suppose the editor gives up because it does take just long enough for me to mentally translate my own writing that it’s not worth it while I’m also trying to draft.

Of course – it makes for some funky spelling mistakes as I type everything in.

heh.

Anyway, I’ve been writing in 1 hour sessions using Reiki music as my background noise. With no lyrics and no real prominent melody, it just seems to zone me into focusing on my thoughts. Three sessions of that have resulted in the problem areas in the middle getting fleshed out. The story’s taking a different direction than I thought it would. Then again, with 10,000 words to play with as a minimum, there’s a lot more room for an actual plot. :)

So a bit strange and unconventional, but I’d rather write in a weird way than stare at the screen for hours and get nothing done like I was a few weeks ago.

* ~ * ~ *

The Zero Room supposedly all checked out for transition to my provider’s new platform, but then when it switched… it all died. *sigh*

Thankfully everything’s backed up on my personal webspace here: http://measi.net/fanfiction/. So if you are saving fic, feel free to continue there. You should have no problems.

I’m going to rebuild the Zero Room site from scratch via reinstalling the eFiction software. Then I’ll attempt to transfer the database from my personal site to the Zero Room one. Planning on getting to that next weekend.

Grrr…

* ~ * ~ *

Michael Jackson’s death (like so much of his life) is a bit surreal. He was a sick man, and hopefully his soul can straighten shit out now that he’s on the other side. I loved his music, but the public profile made it difficult to comfortably listen to anything.

That said, I’ve been enjoying waking up with MTV again this weekend. They’re actually playing… videos. And I’m remembering watching Michael as a kid down in the rec room in the basement, trying to imitate all of those amazing dance moves. Such good times as a kid.

My cat is oozing over my arms… so I suppose I should stop writing and give him he attention he’s craving. *sigh*

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• Tuesday, June 09th, 2009

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• Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Like a lot of the other writers for the Support Stacie auction, I’m finding myself needing to keep tabs of where I’m at. I’m not writing the amount of fics as some others, so I’m also going to incorporate the other fics I’m tossing around.

Due to real life events, writing on all projects is currently on hold – I hope to get back to them soon, but life needs to get sorted a bit first.

Support Stacie – April

Wiggiemomsi’s winning fic:
In progress
Done to date: Plot outline drafted,  85% written

Seeing_History’s bid:
On Hold
Done to date: Idea drafted. Writing to commence upon completion of Wiggie’s fic.

Catyuy’s bid:
On Hold
Done to date: Idea drafted.  30% written.

Ficathons

Better With 3:  On Hold
Done to date:  Plot outline drafted.  50% written.  Will complete after Support Stacie fics are complete.

Misc. Fic

Adagio: On Hold
Done to date: Drabble written.  Intention to expand.  Goal to complete before end of 2009.

Angelius (Working Title):  On Hold
Done to date:  3 chapters written.  Stalled, needs rework.

Will update this post as progress changes (probably twice per week). Sometime mid summer I’ll create a newer status post, and link that one to here.

Status last updated: 24 September 2009

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• Thursday, May 28th, 2009

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• Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

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• Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

The official plug… :)

I will be writing again for the Support Stacie Auction, being held April 3-6, 2009. (link above). I’ve pledged for one 5,000 word fic (bids will start at $10) in one of the three fandoms: Doctor Who, Torchwood, or X-Files. Prompts, rating, pairings, etc. are up to the winning bidder’s choice. The only restrictions I’ve asked for are no requests for babyfic, wedding fic, or songfic, and if asking for a Doctor Who fic, please limit scope to sometime in the New Series, as my Classic Who isn’t yet up to snuff for writing.

AND…

AND… ;)

my special offer for the auction is that if bids go above $100 for my fic, anyone bidding $100 or over will also get a fic of at least 1,000 words according to their requests as well, to be finished after the winning bidder’s fic. (And knowing me… any of that fic is going to go at least 3,000 words, honestly).

So bid! Not just on me, though – bid on everyone! :)

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• Sunday, March 15th, 2009

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