Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Tin Man: Pirates 04

Been sorta working on everything and finishing nothing. Tonight I'm promising myself to get the home computer to a point where I can work on it again. Nobody tells you how much a pain in the ass recovering from a hard drive crash is.

Inspired conversation and can't figure out if the other party is Betsy or Cain:

OP: "Impulsive and headstrong princess...."
DG: "I prefer independent thinking."
OP: "Like I said, impulsive and headstrong."

And my entry for creepy rhyme time:

Beware the deceptive Gnome King,
underneath the detached mountain,
ensnares all living things
blundering into his domain.
Those he beholds with hard affection,
join for all time his collection.

Beware the restless Gnome King
underneath the detached mountain.
Forswear the fort moving on wing
sails persistently through the world's fountain.
He hides driven by rage and fear.
Dawn ceases his unending trek, now steer!

I'm always ambivalent about my stabs at poetry.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Simply because I thought I had already typed it up

I must have left the already typed version at home somewhere. So it's time to get it online so I can find it when I need to do a crazy thing like reference it.

Zack Baker's timeline of stories in the Zackverse:
  1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Bloodlines
  2. To Be a Hero: Hero Awakens
  3. To Be A Hero: Hero Born
  4. To Be a Hero: Hero Recognized
  5. Legends of Hyrule: The Hyrueliana
  6. Legends of Hyrule: Trials of War
  7. TMNT: The Ronin
  8. Gargoyles: Caught in a Tangled Web
  9. Gargoyles: Wild as a Swallow's Song
  10. Biker Mice From Mars and TMNT: Wars Are Won By Those Who Dare: Family, Friends, and Foes
  11. Tin Man: Dragons and Ninjas
  12. BMFM and TMNT: New York, New York
  13. Tin Man: Untitled epic sequel to Dragons and Ninjas
  14. BMFM: Wars Are Won: Invasion of Earth
  15. To Be a Hero: Return to Dragonsworld (not sure if this one is enough of a story to write out or not)
  16. TMNT: Leader of the Foot Clan (Tentative title)


Subject to editing.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Tin Man: Dragons and Ninjas 3

Trying not to be grumpy. I'm going to end up feeling like a jackass and judged anyway if I give into the grumpy. Still it sits uneasily. Remember 117 reviews, 116 from new readers in my first foray into a new fandom is nothing to sneer at--even if it did feel like it took them forever to start reviewing. The mod is going through a patch with her hubby (hey, I just followed the links not trying to be judgmental), never take it personally, shouldn't take it personally, I'm probably reading too much into it... where's Bookworm37's stuff? Two other authors have stories hosted at FanFiction.Net, so it's not culling the Pit (I am rather amused by that nickname) out of the searches for new stories.

*Sigh* I'm going to explain and still feel like a jackass.

Okay, I finally sent an email requesting a link for my story at the Tin Man Crossover Fanfiction Live Journal Community because I have written a crossover that I'm proud of. And it earned 117 reviews; not like I wanted a link up for a substandard story. I finally figured on there being not a whole lot of crossover love in this fandom and was really delighted to see a community dedicated to it. "Weed out the readers not willing to give crossovers a chance." And I've been waiting for a mention since October 2008. I got a lead on the who the mod was and sent the email, thinking maybe it slipped through her reading cracks. It happens.

Yeah, well, my link.

So I clearly misunderstood the parameters. It's not helping all crossovers gain exposure; just recommending the other universes like or familiar with.... she likes Labyrinth. .... Just following the links, and I found Bookworm37's A Different Life and Similar Yet Different are not listed.

Still giving the benefit of doubt, maybe she doesn't read FF.net because of all the dreck available there. Perfectly understandable... found two stories by two different authors hosted at FF.net.

So that's how I ended up grumpy. My story is less plausible that the crossovers of Tin Man with Due South and Boomtown and Star Trek that only seems to exist because they shared actors? (Okay, that's not totally fair, I thought the Star Trek one bringing Hawk back was great.) And I'm also supposed to dump exposition from eight other stories into the first chapter the original character is introduced in despite all my writing training screaming for me not to jeopardize the story in such a way? Personally, I know next to nothing about Supernatural and Stargate SG1. Did that stop me from enjoying those crossovers with Tin Man? Grumpy sums it up.

Yet another example of no matter how tired I get having to fix the mistakes made at Alt. Biker Mice Site (which is the real reason why I haven't done the update in forever and a day), I don't stop anyone from posting whatever they want as long as the smut stays hidden a bit.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Mary Sue

Whatever: Reasonably Unscrewed-up Character %E2%89%A0 Mary-Sue

I was totally unaware of the definition creep of Mary Sue outside of fanfiction circles. All I can say is "ack." Also the quote from Inigo Montoya from Princess Bride springs to mind. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." (Yeah, his OTHER famous line.)

I don't really know which is the more depressing part. People not recognizing a well-rounded character versus a Mary Sue, or people who don't actually get hired for jobs. To be fair it may be free online reviews that anyone can write, but still "ack."

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 56

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 920
Total words for part one of draft: 57099
Total words: 70498
What I hate about my writing: The end is here but not the ending.
The Good: Hey, I made my deadline!
The Bad: The story isn’t done yet, and I have to stop.
Fave DG line: “Because he’s not worth the bullet you will want to put in him.”
Fave Cain line: “Sweetheart? Let it out.” His hand caressed her cheek. “Please, you’ve held it in for too long. Talk to me.”
Fave Raw line: “Go to fresh air. I get drinks and then we go back together.”
Fave Aedan line: “Princess Dorothy Gale, you have been avoiding me. Despite your mother’s instructions.”
What I'm looking forward to: Coming back to it very, very soon; I hope.
What I'm not looking forward to: I’m not going to stop writing, but I have to face the fact that I’ve been using it to avoid what else I have to do—namely graduate with my Masters’. So I’m going to dedicate the time I have been spending on fiction to the nonfiction writing and just keep longhand notes until I can type again.

I have twenty scenes left to go, that may be between 50,000 to 70,000 words to wrap up. I have no real idea right now.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 55

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 1582
Total words for part one of draft: 57099
Total words: 69578
What I hate about my writing: The end is nearly here but not the ending.
The Good: Got the full hour and got a kick-ass word count.
The Bad: GAH, I’ve been bad. I found Tin Man Meta in LiveJournal, and I’ve been on a reading frenzy. (I won’t join LiveJournal but I lurk there a lot.) Where does the bad come in? It has led to me believing that everything I have written has managed to piss off a whole bunch of fans and they won’t read it. That’s one of the drawbacks finding where the intelligent discussions are taking place because you agree with things they talk about and ask if those flaws are in what you’re doing. Or at least I do, but then I want to make my readers happy so they come back for more.

Case in point, this lovely rant on the use of rape and treating a rape victim with comfort sex by blade_girl. I agree with wholly with everything ranted about. I have used rape as a plot point and character detail in my Biker Mice From Mars fanfics, and I think both of those instances treat it realistically. Hell, Tala has just gotten to the point where Vinnie can kiss her without her having a panic attack.

So why do I have a sudden panic attack over this issue? Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic has three near rapes of DG. *Winces* I can’t believe this didn’t raise any flags when I brainstormed the story. My only defense is Disney-ignoring-it-aside, slavers and pirates were historically despicable people and I’m only accurately portraying them as such. The third is a flashback and brought on by alcohol (not an excuse, only the controlling asshat would have enough sense sober not to use his dick as a weapon). The first one linearly in the story actually counts as near rape for both DG and Cain, and when what the bad guys had planned doesn’t happen, DG and Cain end up having consensual sex at DG’s behest. Her reasoning is to only make Cain feel better, to do something nice to make up for the crap he just went through that she feels guilt for. She is so disconnected to her body and positive sexual experience (not because of abuse, just a string of lackluster boyfriends) that the only things separating the two events is Cain is just one man and a decent one who won’t hurt her. How Cain treats that experience turns her ideas upside down, and develop into a real relationship.

So given that, I’m afraid I’ve fallen into a newbie fanfic writer trick of treating rape unrealistically when I do know better and I’m going to lose readers. And I’ve been working so hard at keeping the emotional development evolving with the plot. I’m proud of it. But I don’t see how the character development will happen if I must lose that first nearly rape and its aftermath. *Headdesk.*

Crap, I’m going to have to find a beta reader.
Fave DG line: “I don’t want to turn into my mother.”
Fave Cain line: “And that makes you different from every other person born how?” (My goddess, how I love his rock-solid common sense.)
Fave Dani line: “If you ask me, she’s due to fly the coop.” Dani peered up at them through the bars of the birdcage. “She let the fox into the hen house, and you humans put her back in charge? No wonder you need help.” (If I could make Dani real, I would in a heartbeat. However I doubt she and Mustard (my cat) would get along in the same house.)
What I'm looking forward to: Making-up smut. I think I finally have DG on the right issue to be having an episode about.
What I'm not looking forward to: Tomorrow.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 54

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 1181
Total words for part one of draft: 57099
Total words: 67996
What I hate about my writing: Only thirty minutes and the what am I going to do fear?
The Good: I got thirty minutes and reached my daily goal. Called it a night.
The Bad: The looming fear that is Faulkner.
Fave Spencer line: “Never ask a pirate for a reason unless you want to hear a dozen inventions before noon. Though I think the reason with the most votes is you’re too embarrassed by the response the last time you sang.”
Fave DG line: “You know, I’m sick of people assuming things about me. Unbelievably, undeniably sick of it.”
Fave Cain line: “Now I’m convinced. What’s going on?”
Fave Jenkins line: “I told you you couldn’t sneak the wager past her! You got a song in mind, Mrs. Cain?”
What I'm looking forward to: Making-up smut. I think I finally have DG on the right issue to be having an episode about.
What I'm not looking forward to: Finding out if I can actually keep DG and Cain on a serious subject in front of Dani.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 53

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

Progress Bar from Writertopia

Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 0
Total words for part one of draft: 57099
Total words: 66815
What I hate about my writing: Brain shut down.
The Good: I got a few longhand notes, that’s all.
The Bad: Yeah, DG’s still being an issue. So I decided to take a break for most of the day and tried working on the O.Z. map project. That is when PaintShop decided to cooperate with me. I got ambitious and wanted to incorporate Maguire elements too. And I have a rant to go online about the whole situation later when the maps are actually finished.
What I'm looking forward to: Making-up smut. I think I finally have DG on the right issue to be having an episode about.
What I'm not looking forward to: Finding out if I can actually keep DG and Cain on a serious subject in front of Dani.