chase_acow

I can't say that Deadpool and Wolverine was a good movie, but I was entertained! Except for that dog licking people's mouths and nearly making me puke. I wish there had been more comedy about this particular Logan being the worst - seems to me he just got unlucky and it could have happened to anybody. Now if he were a vegetarian or something . . . that would be anti-Wolverine. I think 2 is going to be my favorite in this trilogy.

I hadn't heard anything about the movie Strange Darling with the tag line Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer's vicious murder spree. The short trailer makes it clear that it's one of those artsy attempts (the pretentious level is in the eye of the beholder) and tells you that you need to go in blind.

( so of course it used one of my deal-breakers for story structure. )

I had my birthday on the 11th. It was fine. I was still stuck on nights for two more shifts so it wasn't the greatest. But I am free now and enjoying the sun.

August and my birthday especially has been a good chance to evaluate some of my yearly goals. I'm never going to make the 200k word goal for GYWO and it irritates me even more that this goal is called "basic" as if it's super easy. So, I thought, I'm just going to try to write a little every day. Ten words is fine! I haven't even managed that the last couple of weeks. Aw well. Here's hoping for September!

Spotify decided to punish my recent listening history by putting this bluegrass cover of Milkshake into my Discovery playlist. My ears bled. I am now listening to playlists that with hopefully exorcise the algorithm.

I enjoyed this twitter/tumblr mash up talking about the table flipping scene in Titanic and how Billy Zane is a good dude.

Is this the Mass Effect/The Office mash up you never knew you needed in your life?

After massively failing my word count goal for getyourwordsout from last year, I signed up for the habit side again with the goal of writing 240 days this year. I decided any day in Jan with over 100 words would count, and I managed 26 days for 10,919 words. So in Feb, I'll count any day I do more than 200, and started off with the hopes to increase the average words. Unfortunately, I have been so exhausted and itchy that I don't think I'm going to get much of a rise. Oh well, maybe next month.

I haven't finished an exchange in forever. I defaulted on Yuletide and FFFX, I just couldn't get it going for either of the small fandoms I thought I was excited about. Nobody's really requesting Sam/Bucky or Top Gun where I see it, so I guess, I'll just hang around.

Definitely not going to finish the Sam/Bucky psychic wolf fic for Lupercalia, but maybe by the end of the month after I flip to day shift.

I got mail from dine I enjoyed the update quite a bit! If you don't have them as part of your circle, you're missing out on entertainment and great recs. : )

I made egg sandwiches for breakfast, both eggs were double yolked monstrosities. Creepy yet delicious. I'm making a lasagna now, it's my first attempt and I hope it goes well because I've been craving it for a couple of weeks now. I miss Fazoli's, it was a great fast food Italian option. The Everyplates meal kits have really upped my confidence in the kitchen. Is it false confidence? probably. Do I still have all my fingers? so far.

OTOH - I've gotten sucked into Epicurious' Basic Skills Challenge which takes 50 people gives them ALL the kitchen gadgets and then asks them to do something like core and peel an apple (spoiler alert, someone tries to use a meat tenderizer mallet and I absolutely lost all my shit) or separate an egg (which one man manages to technically do in the most wrong way possible) and then an expert shows you how to do it the right way. So I also see that I'm clearly not the worst in the kitchen.

I'm reading The Testaments right now and I'm enjoying it now that I checked the wiki page and know there are actually three narrators. I'm dim sometimes. I enjoyed hating the The Handmaid's Tale which I read a couple of years ago. It's just infuriating, and even though obviously everyone jumped on the bandwagon because of the current state of politics in so many places, I probably should have waited for a better time to read it. But since I'd already done it to myself, I figured I might as well read the sequel and see what happens. I tried to watch the Hulu series despite my distaste for Elizabeth Moss, but didn't make it out of season 1.

While reading, I got an idea for a AU Hydra rises/Winter Soldier army fic for Sam/Bucky. It glances the tropes for a slavery fic, but also lets me stage a coup and do some other things with the Avengers characters. Not sure it'll ever see the light of day. Sam fans have to deal with the short end of the stick a lot when it comes to race and fandom, and I don't want to add to that. But I wrote a real easy 1,500 words last night at work and I like a lot of the sex/vulnerability/trust/consent/political issues involved. I mean, sure I could have been writing my assignment for idproquo but y'know, why do what you're supposed to?

shucks, I missed a day

The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface by Donals Maass

My friend at work finished his first draft of a novel, and I am slightly jealous. I've only ever finished the one thing a million years ago. I'm not saying it's good, but it has a beginning, middle, and engaging end, and most importantly, like I said, a finished thing. But we've been trading books back and forth, he lent me this one while he took a couple of mine.

I like Donald Maass. I met him once at a conference and he was a cool, helpful dude. I'm not finished with the book yet, but any amount is honestly useful. I tried to use a few tips in my Sam Wilson Birthday Bang and honestly I thought it helped. I might get the kindle version once I finish.

My favorite exercise was the Third-Level Emotions:
"That's how it works. Be obvious and tell readers what to feel, and they won't feel it. Light an unexpected match, though, and readers will ignite their own feelings, which may well prove to be the ones that are primary and obvious. Third-level emotions. That's the effective way of telling." p23

So in a scene, as the writer you know the obvious emotion, but what else is there? And beyond that, what's the third emotion? Tap into that, and the previous two are understood, but not spelled out. The audience knows.

Maass' other book Writing the Break out Novel and the Workbook are the best things on writing I have ever read.

Here's a ghost choir:


ladybusiness has been reccing some good horror things. My favorite so far is FEMINIST & QUEER HORROR BOOKS RECS

as long as i don't post, I live schrodinger's life, right? I could have excitement, or be doing things. Or y'know talking to people. having friends. Ug. I love having three days off, but I also feel worse for not taking advantage of them to actually do anything. It's been so rainy I couldn't take the dog to the lake even if it had been warm enough to go swimming.

At least my mobile games have never been so taken care of?

And so, instead of content, I give you a meme. The first lines of the last ten things I posted on AO3.

( Apparently I favor short sentences, often leading of with the POV character's name. Sometimes dialog, but nothing too serious. I think they're okay, points your interest the way I want it, but I'd definitely be interested in hearing any of y'all's thoughts or ideas on mine, or first sentences in general. )

The 50 Best First Sentences in Fiction - I don't know about best, but there are some good ones.

Okay, so what is with all the epilogues in the Big Bangs this year? In a couple I've seen they tend to start a second after the last part ended and don't actually round any of the story up. They're not stylistically different from the rest of the piece either.

Is there a point besides the author trying to be "literary" or something? Which I find ironic because most of the agents and publishing sites I've been looking at seem to gag at the mere sight of a prologue or epilogue.

I don't have enough time or desire to read everything posted. Seeing 1) twice as many LJ posts as necessary for the word count and/or 2) an epilogue makes me awful leary and more likely to pass on reading a story. That's just my two cents though, and I'm sure that other people feel the exact opposite. I just wondered what other people thought about it.

I'm going back to my big bang as quick as I finish up my remix assignment today. I'm kinda looking forward to it being over.

Conestoga 13 is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to the promotion of science fiction and fantasy literature, art, science and gaming. We support this goal by hosting an annual science fiction convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma.


I loved this last year, and I'm really looking forward to mingling among writer types again. : ) I got some good ideas and had a lot of fun. I might even try to talk to people. Scary, huh?

Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon are going to be there again and this time, I'll remember to take my copy of The Black Gryphon for them to sign. That's still my favorite book that she's ever written. I should try to think of a question or something intelligent to say in the two minutes when I may or maynot have their attention. : ) Any ideas?

Last year's report is here, and let me know if you're interested in any notes from these panels. : )

( Panels and fun... )

Also, I'm dabbling with the x-posting feature on DW so bare with me if something is wonky.

Without getting into the whole "a story takes as many words as it takes" thing, what do y'all think about story length? I've got admit that I'm pretty biased against fic longer than 50,000 words, and I wondered if I was alone. I'm also trying to get a grasp on the length of my Big Bang fic and how long I want it to go.

[Poll #1382361]

Big Bang 2009 Goals:

1. Finished draft around 30,000 words.
2. Better transitions between sections without becoming episodic.
3. Write with more subtly (show don't tell), especially with emotions.
4. Delve further into motivations, actions are not just an easy out.
5. Sensuality and emotion over porn . . . mostly.

Feedback: What are other things I could concentrate on in my writing? Comment anonymously if you'd like, but I'll listen and think about anything that is brought up. I'd appreciate the opinions.

Story Questions:

First is the story question, the all-important question that guides the entire story or novel or screenplay. What is it that the protagonist wants so badly that she will risk everything to get? This is your north star.

[http://www.wordstrumpet.com/the_power_of_story.html]

( Story questions for my three likely fics. Don't click if you don't want to be spoiled for what I may or may not write. )

Lots of spoiler space up there!

( Here are what others had to say about Story Questions )

I don’t know if any of you have checked the spn_j2_bigbang writers sign up post lately, but it is insane! If half of us make it through to the end, that is going to be a lot of fic to read. I’ve still got some from this past year that I haven’t read yet. *is shamed*

Finishing Only After Disaster Can We Be Resurrected was one of my favorite and best experiences of 2008. It’s amazing and I wish everyone who tries the best of luck and if I can help at all, don’t be shy to hit me up. I hope that I learned a few lessons both in my writing and out, so I figured that I’d share some thoughts before we all dived in.


( Liar’s Guide to Writing a Big Bang: 7 Steps to Success )