| Meta: Live performance fandom versus media fandom |
[Apr. 21st, 2008|02:33 pm] |
I started out in media fandom, where by media I define books, series, films, comics – any creative work that is performed once and communicated via media, a one-to-many single-time-point form of creation. For the past two years, my primary fandoms, the defaults I scribble about in my free moments, have been live performance fandoms. Involvement in the two is a very different experience.
( Media fandom versus live performance fandom: an analysis )
And now, I should probably write another analysis for the fascinating in-between creature that is Takarazuka fandom ;) But at 1,700+ words, this will be enough for now. |
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| Heroes: The story so far |
[Oct. 31st, 2007|08:42 am] |
After falling behind around 2x03, I'm finally all caught up on Heroes and can offer at least some thoughts on the second season.
( Spoilers for Heroes 2x01 to 2x06 ) |
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| Dear Yuletide Santa |
[Oct. 19th, 2007|06:48 am] |
*looks at Yuletide assignment and kind of falls over* At least I didn't get ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fyrie. And I do have a challenge like I wanted.
EDIT: Huh. Looks like everyone will get a rematch, which is a pity - I liked that request :/
( Dear Yuletide Santa, as to my own requests.... )
In conclusion: Dear Yuletide Santa. I wish you luck. You may need it ;) |
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| Notice of absence, with extra whine |
[Oct. 5th, 2007|08:26 pm] |
Off to the seaside for two days, to watch the guy in my moodtheme play a monk. Technically back Sunday, but very, very late.
Also, I have a love-hate relationship with ficathons - so far this year I've succeeded at one, completely failed another for health and work reasons, and this time I managed one a week in advance, only to post the story after the deadline due to circumstances outside my control. I may link to it on Monday, but for now I'm just facepalming over the whole thing because argh! I was trying so hard to be a good participant!
But the one ficathon that's been decent to me last time around is Yuletide, and it'll be signups soon, and yay! It's the rare fandom ficathon to beat all - all rare fandoms and all genres and themes welcome, and you get to both write a rare fandom (out of the ones you indicate you know, of course, and only the fandom and characters are obligatory, you can ignore the prompt if it blocks you), and get a guaranteed story in a rare fandom of your choice. Last year it got me a great Dracula story, and this year I'm hoping for something in a musical fandom.
More about Yuletide here - why not consider signing up? |
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| Movie: Day Watch |
[Sep. 15th, 2007|07:37 pm] |
I saw Dnevnoy Dozor, the sequel to Night Watch, today. I liked the original movie for its slightly mad take on urban fantasy, Russian-punk style, even if the plot could use work, and I like the original books (completely different from the movies).
Day Watch left me reeling. It's - post-modern is probably the wrong word, but it's a mad ride of tropes and plots and postcard-like scenes that stay with you. Fate and inescapability and escape. Lots of emphasis on father-son issues, and two of the main characters (Olga and Anton) body-switching and the actors having such complete fun with it. They must have spent ages studying each other's body language, because Olga in a male body was to die for.
It's such a decadent, oneiric movie, and at the same time the plot is tight. Every moment pushes the action forward. Visually, it's stunning - less elf-punk grime and more New Russian shine, and effects are gorgeous in their simplicity. Let's just say that for the four million (USD) total this film cost, they blew up Moscow, got Tamerlane to invade Samarkand, and filmed the best ending to a truck chicken-fight ever. If you asked me to name a budget figure for the effects alone, I'd say forty million and wouldn't be surprised at twice that.
So yes, recommended, especially if you want to see the East-West divide in action, mentality-wise - it's such a Russian movie. And I think it woke up certain characters of mine, which is good, because it's been ages since I wrote Flowers of the Frost. |
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| Musing on writing, plus meme |
[Sep. 9th, 2007|06:49 pm] |
I've been writing fanfic sporadically at best over the past year or so, but that doesn't mean I haven't been writing. Several original projects are circling at the edge of my consciousness; Roses for Lucifer are threatening to blossom into something even bigger; and of course there is the cowritten soap opera that I promise will be available for consumption. Soon. I've got it all saved until mid-July, all 400 scenes of it!
In the meantime, meme - and even though I haven't posted anything with them yet, I'd love if someone asked about POTC characters. I may have signed up for a ficathon, and this time no Project From Hell on the horizon to interfere with it :)
Name a character that you know I write or have written (or roleplay or have roleplayed), and I’ll tell you:
a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her
b. One of his/her best traits
c. One of his/her worst traits
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character
e. The story/chapter/paragraph/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future |
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| International Blog Against Racism Week: Central European perspective |
[Aug. 10th, 2007|09:32 am] |
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) ibarw is on again, and after the recent kerfuffle (or does anyone remember it in the wake of the Boldthrough?), I've been thinking along the same lines.
One issue I often see in racism discussions is the Europe/America divide. Racism in America is something special, yes, but I think it's mostly because of how much it's been fought against and for, there. I wonder if it wasn't for the better: if Americans aren't perfect, at least they have the instinct to respond to an accusation of racism with "No, I'm not." Too often in Poland, the response is "So what?"
( European take )
(As an aside, I've also been thinking about the issue of writing about race or other discrimination from the point of view of a character with a cultural background and ideas different from my own. Would anybody be interested in reading something like that?) |
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| One last comment about Strikethroughgate |
[May. 30th, 2007|07:18 pm] |
Open this time: can anyone with legal experience in the US or other common-law system tell me whether in the light of this, the following disclaimer might hold water?
This [journal/post/story] discusses matters concerning activity that may be illegal in certain jurisdictions. This is for artistic purposes only, is not meant to condone or encourage such activity, and the author opposes any and all illegal activity. This [journal/post/story] is not used in furtherance of any illegal activity.
I'm thinking that combined with removing questionable interests, this might be a nice argument to pull up with LJ abuse next time they pull this card. "Didn't you read the disclaimer in my profile?" |
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| Shiny things |
[May. 19th, 2007|02:48 pm] |
In case you were wondering, the first two episodes of Heroes made me laugh lots. Since they're showing 2 per week, I should be caught up with the rest of you soon.
rkold is an absolute angel. I am looking forward to boggling my workmates with Original Takarazuka Goodies. "Who is that?" "A Heian-era prince who's sleeping with the mother of his reincarnated father. As played by a girl :D"
But the point of this post: Miss Snark has announced her retirement from her blog.
I must say hers is the best blog I've read for authors looking to be published. She gives a great insight on the industry, the agents, everything. After reading her for the past year I now know much more about how to go about being published. If anyone else is serious about seeing their names on covers of Actual Paper Books, I have to recommend this blog. And now, since there's no telling how long it'll stay up... |
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| Apathy |
[Oct. 12th, 2006|11:09 am] |
I'm starting to wonder if the recent blah-feeling isn't the infection still echoing :/ It had to be something particularly nasty, especially since yesterday, over two weeks after the initial doctor's visit and almost three weeks since I first started feeling the symptoms, I got the vertigo and shortness of breath again. I do so hate being sick.
So, I've been apathetic. When I try to read, especially online, the words tend to just run together. Even Fandom_Wank isn't entertaining me as much as it should. Creativeness also seems to be on hold, apart from one active muse *glares at a certain genderless anthropomorphic personification, who apart from a boyfriend has now acquired a quasi-parental figure and a kid brother*
Nanowrimo probably will not happen this year, but I'm going to do yuletide. They're assembling their list of rare fandoms from scratch this year, and I'm thinking of which ones to request to add to the list - each person can suggest six. Elisabeth is a given, and probably Tanz der Vampire. Book-Dracula is another thing I'd be happy to write. Coldfire, yes, but that'll probably get requested by enough other people. Once Upon A Time in Mexico might not make the cut - 437 stories at FF.net. No idea what else to nominate.
And hey. yuletide will be opening to all comers this year. How about it, people? I can't be the only crazy one :) |
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| Metacolour and other matters |
[Sep. 28th, 2006|12:35 pm] |
I'll be acquiring a fyrie this evening for a week, so LJ presence will be sporadical (though I'm planning to post some backlogged fic). Still, I thought I might as well ramble now:
( Yes, it's that thing about characters of colour,and also me being confused )
And on that note, I'm going back to writing about a mad and repressed Austrian crown prince being molested by a graphomaniac vampire. Peace, all. |
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| A rule of writing |
[Sep. 1st, 2006|10:10 pm] |
Put your characters in situations that rip them apart. And rip them apart some more.
- Sherry Thomas, On fundamental rules of writing
I think this is something that I've internalised over the past year or so. The downside is, I have a lot of traumatised characters.
(On the other hand, I think this is why I adore movies like Equilibrium and Once Upon A Time In Mexico so much. Set up a successful character. Rip them apart utterly. And twist pins in the wounds until the diamond core emerges and smacks you in the face with a pair of pistols.) |
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| DVD commentary meme |
[Aug. 27th, 2006|07:37 pm] |
Had coffee with maggiehoneybite, who's alive and well. trixie_chick wrote me a lovely Yami no Matsuei drabble :). And look, this meme's going around again. Anyone?
If you've ever watched your favorite DVDs, and then found yourself eager to hear exactly what the actors, directors, writers and even production designers thought about making the episode, the movie, or whatever - you'll know sometimes the best parts of DVDs are hearing the commentaries. Getting into an actor's feelings about the character they play, getting the background behind a writer's plans and metaphors, even just getting the stupid anecdotal stuff that makes you laugh, it's all good.
Ask me about any story, and I'll do a DVD commentary for it! Satisfy your curiosity!
(List of fics here and earlier stuff at the site.) |
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| On creativity and referentialism |
[Aug. 5th, 2006|06:29 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | art, linkage, writing meta | ] |
| [ | Mood |
| |  pensive | ] |
| [ | Music |
| | Elisabeth - Ai to Shi no Rondo (Yuichiro Yamaguchi) | ] |
Still no writing done. And I switched to colour pencils, which have the advantage of not leaving my thighs covered with abstract artwork. I know I should go wash my hands each time I run out of smudging fingers when I work with pastels, but wiping them on my skin is quicker. (And no, I have no ambitions to create Art with my doodling; I just want to be able to produce workmanlike drawings that resemble the subject, because sometimes something just begs for illustration.)
I have, though, been reading the writeup of the Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle. I have to say the writing's better - or maybe the subject less convoluted - than the msscribe saga. I must say that back-when I had the same problems while reading the Draco trilogy, and finally I gave up mid-Dormiens.
It's also made me somewhat paranoid about my own pretentious postmodern parlour tricks: how far can I go with referencing others? The sky over the bay was the color of a television tuned into a dead channel. Verbatim, unreferenced because I assume those who know, do, and those who don't, won't care, is this homage or plagiarism?
(And it doesn't help that I have a digital memory for quotes. There is a man, playing a violin, and the strings are the nerves in his own arm. If I love, I quote, verbatim and at length.) |
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| Ouchies :/ |
[Aug. 2nd, 2006|08:45 pm] |
My arm hurts :( Meme stolen from smittywing:
Ask me anything you want about any of my stories: how I thought of the idea, what I did to write it, what I was thinking when I wrote it, what I feel about it now, what I wish I'd done differently, etc. Or ask any of the characters from particular stories something you want to know, and get an answer from them. Or both. |
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| Link dump |
[Jul. 28th, 2006|10:09 pm] |
Ganked from shoiryu, mostly for my own perusal, but might be interesting to other language-curious people and writers...
( Mostly linguistics ) |
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| On warnings, and other matters |
[Jul. 22nd, 2006|11:00 am] |
The post at metafandom seems to have sparked quite a debate on what warnings are warranted in fanfiction (my favourites: haircutting, feet, non-fluff) and what should be done to writers who don't precede their stories with at least a paragraph-ful of caveats. The latter doesn't go quite into graphic detail, possibly because that would warrant warnings, but tarring and feathering seem to be a good guess for starters. See kyuuketsukirui's post for more information.
Which is as good a place as any to state my own warning policy. Now, I understand warning for squick - I've put down many a book because it just turned my guts and I didn't see the point of forcing down nausea just to read it through in hope of finding some gem buried in the dung. Consequently I do warn for all things sex-related, which are also good indicators that should anyone want a story with torture, bondage, dubious consent and bloodplay to brighten their day, Als es Sommer war is a good choice. (And I still can't believe I wrote that one. fyrie is a bad influence on me.) The same goes for squicky graphic violence, though apparently the same story misses a warning for rib-breaking - something I never thought would warrant one.
On the other hand, I don't understand warning for general mood of the story - angst or fluff belong in the summary, not the warning section, though I may put them there jokingly. And no, I will not warn for character death. I never kill people gratuituously. If I do kill someone, I want that death to grab the reader by the throat and force a gasp from their mouth. I might or might not accomplish that, but I won't warn and spoil it for everyone. If you haven't gotten the message yet that I've a twisted brain and a liking to be cruel to my muses, you're in the wrong territory.
I've yet to get a flame for killing people off in my fics. I think that means my strategy is working.
Now, off to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Yo ho ho and a bottle of amaretto, because I can't stand rum :P |
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| Interesting things |
[Jul. 18th, 2006|07:30 pm] |
For some values of interesting, of course.
Inability to recognise faces as a disease (NYT Bugmenot ID) - not only interesting as a fictional idea, but bloody annoying. I think I might have a minor version of it - it's very hard for me to tell faces apart if they're the same type. Onscreen, fine, but on the street, I could walk past Johnny Depp and not notice.
Materazzi/Zidane slash. It had to happen. And it's amazingly well-written in a gritty and real way, saving some capital letters.
( Me as a Meez )
I also have a Vox account and two invitations. Anyone want to snare a username? I'm very impressed with the multimedia features, it's a great place for a photo/video log.
And I'm still looking for ficathons :( |
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| Ficathons? |
[Jul. 18th, 2006|12:54 pm] |
I've been thinking about trying my hand at a ficathon. Are there any that are accepting signups currently? You guys know my fandoms... |
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| Quote for future usage |
[Jun. 15th, 2006|12:40 pm] |
Io venni in luogo d'ogni luce muto.
(I came into a place where all light was silent.)
- Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto V, verse 30 |
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| Sandbox invitation |
[Jun. 6th, 2006|10:57 pm] |
Just in case anyone remembers any story I wrote and wants to play in the same sandbox, via remixes, mashups or prequels/sequels/missing scenes: Almost everything is fair game for revisit_me.
If you have a bit of spare time on your hands ;) |
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| Stranger than fiction? |
[May. 22nd, 2006|10:14 am] |
If a book told about the male half of a pair of beautiful Jewish twins, flamenco dancers, who after his sister's death in the Shoah dressed up as her, sewing dresses and, with the help of an old German fan, becomes an assassin in the Jewish resistance, you'd say the author was being fanciful. Especially if they went on to describe the way the man assumed his sister's stage name and performed for years as Dolores, though he failed to teach Elvis Presley how to use the castanets ("Lovely man, but they just weren't for him.") Now he's ninety years old and fixing watches, aiding people with telling real gold from fake, helping crippled pigeons and yes, flamenco dancing in a new dress.
Sylvin Rubinstein. Something about this story touches me. I need to track down that documentary of his life. |
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| For the slash writer's publishing dream |
[Apr. 22nd, 2006|07:56 pm] |
This is probably old news to anyone seriously looking to publishing their original slash, but Torquere Press looks like a nice outfit. They publish original LGBT fiction in various genres, including Fantasy/SF, Supernatural, Mystery and Historical. They published two stories by the brilliant evremonde, who was kind enough to bring them to my attention. Legit, aboveboard, and accepting unagented electronic submissions of everything from short stories to serialised novels. Paid, too, anything from $10 for reprints of short stories to 30% of the cover price for novels.
Note to self: write something original, dammit. High time to start making money off this hobby. |
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| did anyone mention coffins? |
[Jan. 19th, 2006|10:42 pm] |
I want a coffin. A big plush-lined one I could crawl into and not get out until Sunday afternoon. 12 hours straight at work today, 8.30 to 8.30. Food, what food?
Jonathan Carroll's posting cool quotes again. And a meme from penknife:
How to tell you're reading a story by Beth Winter?
( all 10 of them ) |
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| On the naming of characters |
[Nov. 26th, 2005|03:19 pm] |
I'm trolling babynames sites, and there are such a lot of names that are just begging to be used in fiction. Aldona, Indré, Frauke, Berenika, Larissa - why don't they appear more often? It seems like anyone writing, say, HP fic uses the same three names all over again. Why not have a Nicodemus Malfoy, Theodosia Black, Malvina Weasley? Dare to leaf through that baby names book, people ;)
NaNo news: Part 9 and another Interlude - tape transcript this time. I'm a little behind, but I'm damn proud of Part 9 - it might not look like much, but it's the first time I've written an almost 5K-word action scene that actually has action in it. Normally, I can't write action at all.
Four hours until Vampires. Mrr. Krolock 4EVA. |
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| November just around the corner |
[Oct. 9th, 2005|09:02 am] |
It's been over a year now, since my writing-melody has stuck like a broken record. Okay, there have been some patches of cloudless skies (What Remains, Quintile, Memory(FeelIt)Now), but they have something in common: they're series of drabbles. I plot longer things, start to write them, but I do not finish them. I need to fix this stutter. I need a writing-catharsis, a typewritten epiphany, a free-flow marathon to make me forget about closed structures and filigree repetitions.
And look, it'll be November in no time at all.
I did it once, in 2003, ending up with 50,000 words that formed two-thirds of a rather good novel that still needs an ending and a place in the top 20 forum posters. In 2004 I started, then broke down as my ilness returned with a vengeance. Now it's 2005, and I don't want a plot, sense, rhyme nor reason. There will be castles and aristocrats, heather and magic and blood.
Since I don't plan for it to be publishable in print, I might even post it online.
Once more unto the breech.
NaNo or bust.
PS: My NaNo theme song for this year: INXS - Elegantly Wasted |
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blah
confused
thoughtful
sleepy
amused
bored
sad
apathetic
quixotic
curious
annoyed
happy
crazy