I also have NaNo and the fandom challenge I'm participating in... I'm behind in both of those, too, which is my own fault for not working on them when I had the time and watching all of season 3 of Burn Notice again over the past few days. Still, I haven't been completely unproductive this weekend...
Today, in order to catch up with everything I:
Did the dishes so we could start the week off clean.
Wrote 3,000 words of my NaNo novel, culminating in a very long visit from the exposition fairy. I'm now only 6,667 words behind... and I'll be more behind to tomorrow, but I made a big dent today, and I'm less behind than I would be if I hadn't done anything at all.
Posted the first five parts of my Wolf's Head fic on the Big Bang Hood site. I'm SO embarrassed that I'm the last one left to post, and formatting takes me forever. Copy/pasting from Microsoft Word doesn't work so well sometimes. My paragraphs are inconsistently indented, and sometimes weird symbols show up when I actually post. So, I spent the afternoon going through and making final corrections to the chapter, copy-pasting into notepad to clear Word's weird formatting crap, going back and manually making sure that all the paragraphs are the same and have space between them for easier web reading, and manually inputting the italics and previous and next chapter html. There has to be a better way to do this... I just don't happen to know what it is. I've got some ideas I'm going to try tomorrow that will hopefully speed things up.
Coming up, I've got more students essays that are going to be turned in, Thanksgiving at my parents', at least Saturday of LosCon, the end of Nano, and I can't even begin to think beyond that. *gasps for breath*
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caedhe and I finished our Robin Hood series 1 rewatch last night. It's been fun for me to go back and watch those old episodes again, but... ( Spoiler cut for anyone who hasn't seen the end of series 1 and actually cares. )It's strange to me that no matter how many times I've seen this episode, no matter how well I remember exactly what's going to happen when, I still get really upset every time I watch it. There are actually a lot of fandom moments that do that to me, and I'd love to know what does this to other people. So... if you want to...
List five fannish products (episodes, books, movies, etc) that are still as heartbreaking today as they were when you first saw them. Here are mine...
( Spoilers for Firefly, Angel Season 5, PotC:AWE, and Robin Hood Series 2. )
And now that you're thoroughly depressed, to cheer up, list five fannish products that are still as good as they were the first time you saw them. Here are mine...
( Spoilers for Robin Hood, Doctor Who (9th Doctor), Buffy Season 5 )
Some people remember the JFK assassination, some people remember when Martin Luther King was assassinated and when the Apollo mission landed on the moon. I was a little late to this world for all of those things. For me, the Berlin Wall coming down is the first big world event I remember clearly and whose significance I really understood (other than a presidential election... I remember learning about the election process with Bush v. Dukakis in '88).
( Here's what I remember. )
So, the way I see it, my options are as follows:
1. Continue to write my fic with the intention of hitting 50,000 words and hope that there's something salvageable at the end of November and that I don't throw up my hands and decide I don't care enough to edit because I'm so burnt out.
2. Say, "forget getting 50,000 words, I'm going to use NaNo to encourage me to write every day, and I'm going to try to write a quality story. Even if it's less than 50,000 words, at least I won't hate everything all the time while I'm writing."
3. Put Guy and Marian on the shelf for a month, come up with a completely original idea for NaNo and try to make up for lost time starting tomorrow. Then, when I'm done with November, I'll be so happy to see the Robin Hood gang again that writing them will be a breeze.
What should I do, f-list? I clearly shouldn't be making decisions for myself right now.
- Mood:
stressed
Happy Birthday
scifichicx! I hope your birthday was a good one. I can't think of anyone who deserves it more.
Second, as I'm sure most people know, I'm participating in a Robin Hood fic challenge right now, and we're looking for some artists who want to do art for the stories that have already been submitted. I think that some of the people who had originally volunteered have dropped off the map. So, we find ourselves in need of at least four artists who are interested in participating. I know I have some pretty talented folks on my flist, so I thought I'd spread the word. If you're a Robin Hood fan, have some artistic talent, and want to do something fun and cool for the fandom, check out the artists' sign up post here and the revised due dates here. What do you get out of this, I hear you ask? Well, you get a banner for taking part in the challenge, you get to read one of the stories before everyone else does, and you get to do something nice for an author who has put a lot of work into her story. (I think I'm safe in using "her" here...)
And finally... Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh The Gathering Storm came out today and I don't have it yet because I ordered it on Amazon yesterday because it had a really good pre-order price and I don't know what to do with myself. *ahem* Sorry. This is the first time since I was in London that I haven't had a new WoT book on the day it came out, and it's making me twitchy. I'm not even done rereading Knife of Dreams yet, so it's not really that big of a deal. Except it is!!!! There are people out there READING IT right now, and I'M NOT! And considering the amount of grading I have left to do tonight, that's probably a good thing.
I know I have some work to do on my draft, but on the whole I’m very happy. I’ve learned (or been reminded of) quite a bit about myself as a writer as I’ve gone through this process. And because I internalize by writing, here’s my list. (I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging here… I’m just astonished that any of this worked at all, and I’m trying to figure out exactly what I did for the future.)
( What I learned from writing my BigBangHood fic )
I can't wait to read what everyone else on the challenge came up with, and to see the artwork! I've never participated in something this BIG before, and the idea of having such an influx of long work into the fandom makes me ridiculously happy.
That means that I have 7,000 words to write if I want to have a complete draft in by the 26th. I can do that, right? RIGHT? (In all actuality, I think I can do that... and if I don't quite hit the word count or have to turn in a detailed chapter outline for the last section, I don't think anyone involved is going to kill me.)
I... can't believe I've gotten this far. In the last few days, I've learned about medieval arrow extraction techniques, herbs native to England that stop bleeding, and the length of an arrow shot from an English longbow. More research than the writers of the show probably ever did, but I'm having such fun learning these things... I'll be going over the whole thing with a fine-toothed comb once the draft is done, but on the whole, I'm pretty happy with what I have. People seem to be reasonably in character, and I'm having fun working with a very different set of relationships than the ones in canon. I don't think I've written this long of a fanfic since 2005 when I finished my Peter Pan fic and my Patriot fic. (Is it any coincidence that my next spate of writing long fic features around another gorgeous, dark-haired baddie? I don't think so.) Apparently, I just needed an extra push to get off my rear and write.
In short... I. Love. This. Challenge. Massive kudos to
jedi_of_urth for organizing it.I spent a good chunk of this afternoon writing a very pivotal scene in my
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bigbanghood fic, and by the time I was done, I had so much adrenaline running through my veins, I could feel my heartbeat in my toes, and I felt like I could run a four minute mile if I needed to. I was in the middle of the scene, wondering why my body's "fight or flight" response was kicking in, and I suddenly realized that I was having my viewpoint character's reactions. (Yes, it's Guy... not a surprise, there, but pretend for me like it is?) It was weird. When I was finished, I had to go outside and do something for a while to burn off all of the excess energy, so I watered all of the plants and then made myself sit down and eat some leftovers slowly enough that I could actually taste them. (I fixed honey Dijon pork chops and cauliflower last night... not as complicated as it sounds. My meat recipe went something like this: "combine bottle of Lawry's marinade + defrosted meat + skillet + fire." Still, it was delicious.) I haven't felt this excited about a writing project for a long while. I've been writing regularly for a few days, and I've managed between 1,000 and 2,000 words a day since Wednesday, and it's on now. I'm actually getting to the point where I look forward to sitting down each day at the computer because I can't wait to pick up where I left off, rather than putting it off because I'm dreading the prospect of having to produce all of those tiresome words. I'm still behind where I wish I was in terms of word count, but with a little bit of luck, I'll be able to continue to tap into the reserver of self-discipline I seem to have stumbled into and actually have a draft of my story completely finished by the time our first drafts are due.
In other news...
My classes are going well. They're all huge, and there are a couple of kids in one of my classes who think they're too good to be there, but unfortunately, (for them and for me) they're not. They're also guys who think that because I'm a young-ish, fairly soft-spoken female who is painfully nice and understanding most of the time that I won't reign down fire on them for goofing off in my class. They're wrong, and if they don't shape up, they're about to find that out. The majority of my students, though, seem to be nice people who want to improve.
Rae and I went on a mini Labor Day vacation that took us up the coast a ways. We spent a lot of time at a place called Moonstone Beach near Cambria, and we drove up to San Simeon so I could take Rae to Hearst Castle for the first time. I have a lot of pictures that I'll post soon. It was a nice break, and exactly what I needed before school got crazy.
14. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
( Oh so many spoilers. Yes, including the big one at the end. )
15. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
To sum up: Sanderson is often very good at complicated relationships between people and races that don't understand each other very well. This bodes well for his foray into the WoT world. However, he has lots of scene with people standing around and talking and planning rather than actually doing. This worries me. The WoT series is already very talk-y. It doesn't need any more of that than it's already got. He also tends to give big events less focus than I think they deserve, and that worries me as well. But, to end on a positive note, he's really good about describing the workings of "magic," staying within the rules he establishes, and explaining new developments in a plausible way. That's key for anyone who's going to try to be writing about saidin and saidar for fans who have been meticulously paying attention to how they work for going on twenty years now (Eye of the World was published in 1990…). I'm hoping that Mr. Jordan's plotting and notes and the experience of having written a trilogy like this one already will alleviate some of the problems I've mentioned.
I don't want to make it sound like I didn't like these books... I liked them very much. I think I'm just getting to be a more critical reviewer in my old age. (Old age being just shy of thirty, in this case... though I feel much more crotchety than that.)
Though I haven't gotten around to posting my comments in the rewatch threads for the last two episodes, I do have thoughts. Loud, occasionally-squee-filled, occasionally-angry thoughts.
So, here are my musings on "Parent Hood" and "Turk Flu."
( 1x04, or, Even GUY Isn't That Callous )
( 1x05, or, Welcome to the Gang, Djaq!!!!! )
I did my notes for my Tuesday class tomorrow and made sure that I was on top of things there... no sense in letting that fall behind just because it isn't my only class any more.
Yesterday, I had a fun chat with a whole bunch of other lovely RH writers... but I put off working for my syllabus this morning and tore my hair out over it until far too late at night.
I set myself a goal of writing 1,000 words for my RH fic today, and after several hours of writing, I did it! It was a tough section... especially since I happen to care about historical accuracy and I was doing lightning-speed-research and fact checking as I went. The next chapter is a lot of action, so hopefully that will go more quickly.
Things I found out:
Does it snow in Nottingham? Yes!
Would a well-off woman in the late 1190's have a Book of Hours? No, but she might have had a Psalter.
How many t's in the RH2006 version of Will Scarlet(t)? Two.
What color are Will/Harry Lloyd's eyes? I don't know! I pulled up several different groups of screen shots, and they are either grey, blue, green, hazel, or brown depending on what he's wearing and the lighting. Pick an eye color, Will! In frustration, I rearranged my description so eye color isn't mentioned any more.
( Real Stuff )
( Fandom Stuff (Lots of True Blood spoilers, and one big Burn Notice Spoiler for the Mid-season finale) )
Give me a character or a pairing and I'll give you something from my personal headcanon about them. Can't promise I'll come up with anything particularly interesting for all of them (I HAVE MY BIASES, AFTER ALL), but I'll certainly try!
We survived Comic-Con 2009! And what's more, we have our sanity, all of our limbs, a whole lot of free swag, and some awesome memories.
( Wednesday: Preview Night )
( Thursday: Kick-ass Women, Burn Notice (spoilers for last week's episode and the rest of the season!) )
( Friday: Bones, Dollhouse, and Star Wars Fan Films (spoilers for everything) )
( Saturday: Boondock Saints (kind of), True Blood (ZOMGFLAIL spoilers), and Masquerade )
Every year around the end of July, I seem to rediscover the joy of devoting whole hours of my day to reading and the satisfaction of finishing an entire novel from cover to cover in the time between waking up and going to bed. Perhaps it's because summer school is over and con is done with and I have some space to breathe before classes start up again. In any event, I read a book today. It was the second of my Comic-con advance reader's copies, and it was fantastic. I was excited about it from the moment I picked it up and read the back, and it was even better than I thought it would be. When I got to the end, I found myself wanting to go right back to the beginning and read it again... a compulsion I haven't felt for a long time.
At its most basic, Ash is a retelling of Cinderella. But it is... so much more than that. ( I promise to include no spoilers you wouldn't get from reading the back... )
In short, I'm so glad I got my hands on this. It's fast on its way to becoming one of my favorite fantasy standalone novels.
And now... books I've read recently.
11. Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
I have been reading this book for a very long time. I have a tendency to put off finishing series I enjoy. I've had the last novel in Lynn Flewelling's Tamir Trilogy sitting on my shelf for the past year, and I've been reading Inkdeath since January. I suppose I don't want them to end, and I think that by letting them sit on my shelves collecting dust, I can postpone the inevitable. ( Spoilers for Inkspell and the end of the trilogy. )
12. The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade
This is the first of my post Comic-Con freebie reads. I picked an advance reader's copy up on Thursday and had it mostly read by Sunday afternoon. It was a great companion in those long lines.
This is a novel for people who like Victorian England, secret societies, mad scientists, or any combination of the three. It's filled with literary references, and it is quite dark in some places.
( I'm not good at writing non-spoilery reviews... )
Lots of snacks and water bottles? Check.
Fannish t-shirts? Check.
Sun screen? Check.
It's time for COMIC CON!!!! I'll be back late Sunday evening with a hoard of books and a lot of story.
See the look on my face in my lj icon? All crazed and sun struck but really happy? Yeah. That's how I feel about now. (With maybe a bit less squee...)
( What I've been up to: Real Life Edition )
( What I've been up to: Fandom Edition (spoilers for Torchwood: CoE, True Blood Season 1, and probably Robin Hood) )
Rating: PG
Characters: Guy, Vasey
Prompt: Guy: faith (this was written for
rh_drabblefest)Word Count: 218
Disclaimer: Alas, they belong to legend, not to me.
( Fic is under the cut. )
