thedeadparrot

Writing

As I mentioned in my last post, I am offering up fic for fandomtrumpshate. I didn't specify a fandom because I am willing to write in a lot of different fandoms, including crossovers! The last time I did this, I ended up writing fic for a fandom that I had literally never written in before. You can head over to my offer post if you want to get me to write things for you.

Knitting

On top of that, I have decided to open myself up to knitting commissions. $50 to an awesome charity of your choice (the list collated for fandomtrumpshate is a good place to start) and sending me the donation receipt will get you a knitted item or a pair of knitted items (in the case of mittens or legwarmers). I will handle costs for yarn/shipping, because my yarn stash isn't the most ridiculous, but I might have something in it already that suits your needs. And if I don't have it already, I don't mind the excuse to buy more yarn. *cough* First three (3) takers for now, just so that I don't overwhelm myself.

This offer only covers hats/cowls/mittens/legwarmers/similar size things, because they're relatively small and quick to make, but I'm willing to take on a wide variety of techniques, including color work, cabling, and lace. Some patterns I've made in the past include:

Brioche Cowl
Cabled Fingerless Mittens
Ombre Hat
TARDIS Cowl
Cabled Hat
More Mittens

I'm definitely interested in trying new and exciting things, though, so don't feel limited by this list. I will happily work with you to find the right pattern and yarn for the project.

If you're interested, DM me here on Dreamwidth or via Twitter and we'll work out the details. No need to make the donation before you contact me.

Chugging along with this one fic that I thought might just be emotional arcs, and it turns out that it's also like, growing a plot as well. It's the worst! Why, writing, whyyyyyy.

I finished reading the psychic wolves books. I'm not sure if I would recommend them to others, necessarily. But they were generally entertaining and had fun worldbuilding with their fake Vikings who bang each other.

Oh, and I wrote some psychic wolf fic (for Lupercalia) myself:

sweeter than heaven, hotter than hell (4414 words) by thedeadparrot
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hockey RPF
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jeff Carter/Mike Richards
Characters: Mike Richards, Jeff Carter
Additional Tags: Psychic Wolves, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot
Summary:

Arnold's the one who's getting very thoroughly laid wolf-style, and Mike's here in his hotel room, very much not getting laid. Good thing Jeff's around to help him out.

I have a first draft of my Star Wars fic! About 16k words right now, but it's definitely going r get a lot longer in the editing phase since I was rushing more than usual in the first draft. I think I might need a few days before I'm ready to put on my editing hat and dig into it again. But omg, it's a thing!

The first draft is always the hardest one for me because it's all about laying down the backbone of the story. Now I can put flesh on it and maybe re-arrange some of the limbs and put all the feelings back in. Those are smaller chunks of work overall once I get my brain in the right sort of mood to tackle them.

I'm trying to do a first-pass edit my fic, but it's just kind of boring and mediocre and I can't focus on fixing it because I've been so distracted by move preparations. No, that's not entirely true. I can't focus on fixing it because every time I look at it, my eyes start glazing over. If I'm boring the shit out of myself, I can't even imagine what it would do to any of you.

Meh. I guess we'll see how this goes. I'm pretty close to ditching it and starting up something else that's more insubstantial. Bah.

This is a rant about worldbuilding in fandom.

I think, as fandom, we do this thing where we try to justify our id-pleasing premises by trying to explain it. Oh no, um, evil scientists just invented dudes who can have children, okay? There was totally financial thing, like, twenty years ago, and I guess we had to resort to a slave economy. Totally.

Sometimes, it can be done well, but a lot of the time it feels like watching a terrible Christopher Nolan movie, where you can pretty much see the convoluted machinery that's moving us to the predetermined ending, clearly reverse engineered and not particularly organic.

What I love seeing in fandom, what I love almost more than anything else, is the part where we, as authors, move past that point and say, "so then what?"

We have slaves, sexy slaves, and people buy and sell them against their will. So then what? How does the slave trade look, now that we exist within a heavily technological, commercialized culture? How do your slaves signal status or lack thereof? How does the burgeoning emancipation movement work? Which politicians do they target? How? Do they go the radical human-rights-terrorism route?

Oh no! The evil dystopian government is forcing people to get married. So then what? What is their career situation look like? What is expected of married couples of various ages and life-stages? What is up with raising children? How are they expected to interact with other married couples? What happens to the stragglers or the people who try to buck the system? What does this look like to other countries? Do they all have similar systems?

It frustrates the crap out of me when I see authors twisting themselves up into knots trying to justify their id to me. I don't care! I don't care why aliens that secrete aphrodisiacs might be on Earth or why otherwise perfectly normal human men go into heat! I am willing to start with you guys there.

But for fucks sake, please make the rest of it interesting. Ask the other questions. Dig a little deeper. You'll be surprised at what you find.

Our worldbuilding shouldn't end at the point where we get our id-pleasing premise. It should start there.

</end rant>

Okay, so in order to keep my energy up for this project, I think I am going to set up a Trello board for my own work and then promptly fail to keep it up to date. There is something extremely soothing about being able to move things from 'to do' into 'done' and I think it's good so that I when I feel overwhelmed by what I have left to do I can see what I have already finished as well. Of course, right now it's all overwhelming, but oh well! I will try this out as a means to keep myself moderately organized. We'll see how long it takes for this to fall apart.

Also, I think I might need to start listing out the things I have done in this journal, because it's my space and I can do what I want here. SO THERE.

( Completed )

So, we sailed right past it fairly recently, but I just celebrated my 10 year anniversary of writing fic! Jeez, that feels like so long. I don't think I'm surprised at all to still be in fandom, but ten years still feels like a huge amount of time.

Since that does feel like a semi-significant milestone if you are me, I thought I'd indulge in a navel-gazing look back at what I've actually managed to write over the last ten years.
( in the beginning )
( those awkward middle years )
( the rest of that shit )
( where do I go from here? )

It was really great wandering around Somerville this weekend as part of Somerville Open Studios. I think part of it was just enjoying looking at art, and part of it was also getting to see artist studios, seeing the converted factories with squeaky wooden floors and exposed piping, the paints, the canvases, the woodworking tools, the messy doodles on the walls. I'm always impressed by the amount of creativity in people, the number of ways in which people chose to create new things and express themselves. Not all of the art I've seen has been got, perhaps not even most of it, but I still loved seeing it. I'm not sure I'll make this a yearly trip, but it was definitely worth doing this year. It didn't hurt that the weather was gorgeous.

I've been writing a decent amount lately. The best thing about Twine is that it tickles my writing and programming brains at the same time, which is really great. Most of the code is really simple, but I had a bug yesterday! And I fixed it! That was really fun. I still don't know if this story is going to work, if the pacing is too all over the place and video-gamey, if the worldbuilding is crap (though I have had some great conversations with people about it, which was good), if the plot is too non-sensical, if I can get the emotional builds and dips right. Still, I have a plot outline, mostly, and I have approximately 4k written and coded up. There's still a lot to get to, and there are a lot of places in those first 4k that need a lot of work (a lot a lot), but I'm still enjoying it. There's something both thrilling and frustrating about a first draft, about seeing how everything is coming together and yet how long everything takes.

I don't have many interesting or deep Iron Man 3 feelings. I guess as a series of scenes, I was very entertained, but as an overall storyline or character arc, it doesn't hold up at all. Pretty much every person I've spoken to has stronger feelings about it than I did.

I also bought KotOR 1 and 2 during this weekend's Steam sale. They actually work somewhat decently under wine, and it's hilarious how quickly computer graphics age. Still, all my adolescent feelings are still lingering, and I'm really looking forward to see what sorts of improvements the KotOR 2 restoration mod makes to the overall experience of that game.

I finished a draft of a new story! It needs so much work, but for now, I can go back to watching video game documentaries and getting thoroughly jossed by this show.

I have been writing after a bit of a drought! I am planning on staying in during the day today and seeing how much I can get done. Also, um, watching the Olympics some more. The weather is so gross today.

I am also considering signing up for xmenbigbang, but I only have vague ideas of what I would want to write, and I've only ever written three stories over 15k words. I'm not sure I have the endurance to pull that sort of thing off.

I spotted this meme around tumblr, but I don't really use tumblr much, so here it is.

Directions: Give me number(s) in the comments and I will answer the corresponding question.

1. How did you get interested in fanfiction?


2. What was your first fandom? Your first OTP?


3. Do you review all the fanfics you read, most, or do you prefer to read and move on? If you write, what’s the best review you’ve ever gotten? The worst?


4. Favorite AU to read? To write?


5. What’s your favorite genre to read? To write?


6. What are your biggest fanfiction pet peeves?


7. Do you have any crackships?


8. Do you have any ships you don’t like or used to but don’t anymore?


9. Are there any kinks you love to read? Any you avoid?


10. Do you prefer to read fanfics in first, second, or third-person POVs? To write?


11. Do you read exclusively NC-17 fanfics, or will you read any rating?


12. What’s the latest you’ve stayed up reading a fanfic? Writing one?


13. Is there a website you’re partial to when you search for fanfiction, or do you more read whatever you can get your hands on? When it comes to writing, is there a website you prefer to use for publishing your fanfics?


14. How long have you been “18”?


15. Are there any plot ideas you want to either do or see someone else do?


16. Do you associate certain songs with certain ships or fanfics? If you could make a playlist for your OTP(s), which songs would be on there?


17. Do you follow any RPs? Do you RP?


18. What’s on your fanfiction rec list?