X Never Marks the Spot

The last few weeks have been very confusing for me writing-wise because somehow my brain decided to deal with all the stress and disruption of present times by making me write porn. Which is pretty normal stress-relief for a lot of people, but I...am just not into smut? For the longest time I've said I'm both the worse gen fan ever because I have so many ships; but also the worst slash fan because while I love romance, I always just skim the sticky bits.

I've been writing explicit stuff on occasion for years now -- I actually enjoy writing it more than reading it, have never figured that one out -- but this run I think is about the most I've ever written at once (...and I think it's pretty tame stuff really, but it feels like A Lot to me ^^;;;)

But I seem to be working it out of my system because last night I went back to an old and much-loved trope wheelhouse and wrote pure angst and ahh, it was very nice! Not sure yet what I'm going to do with this, if anything. But there was some talk on Twitter a bit ago about presumed dead and how there wasn't enough of it in Guardian fic, and this is a variation on one of the ideas that came up...

( Read more... )

I FINISHED THE DANG NIGHT VALE STREX-FIC! *flops over*

From the Ground Up (157104 words) by Xparrot
Chapters: 32/32
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil Palmer
Characters: Carlos (Welcome to Night Vale), Dana (Welcome to Night Vale), Original Strex Characters, Kevin (Welcome to Night Vale), Cecil Palmer
Additional Tags: Drama, Angst, Drugs, Dystopia, Strexcorp, Present Tense, Memory Alteration, Canon Divergence
Summary:

"The colloquial name is bloodstone," says the man from StrexCorp's Acquisitions division. "Heard of them?"

Carlos shakes his head. "No, but I'm not a minerologist. Are you certain this wasn't intended for the geology department?"

~

Carlos is a loyal company employee, who has never been to any place called Night Vale and never met anyone named Cecil…which doesn’t explain the mysterious woman appearing in his lab, or these dreams he’s started having…

( a bit of rambling on the writing of it, mostly for my own record ) ...Actually, according to my stats, I've written more words for WTNV than any other fandom (the majority in this fic.) Wow, how'd that happen? (Don't kill me, gnine! *hides*)

Now it's time for the regular sit-here-and-compulsively-check-email-for-comments-as-I-stress-about-everybody-hating-the-ending! (I can't be the only one who finds posting final chapters stressful...)

--I got a comment! They liked it! \o/

50,703 words, 25 days!

Of course said words are not any good, and the story itself is maybe a third done, but still! TRIUMPH!

Do you know what this means? It means I can go to bed before 6 AM tonight! Wahahah! *collapses*

*gets up long enough to nibble on leftover turkey. mmmm, dark meat...*

So a question to all my fellow authors on the flist - how many of you have been 'victims' of reverse plagiarism? As in, swiped before you even write it?

By which I mean you get an idea for a fic, you're happily writing it, the story's going better than expected - and then whammo, someone you've never heard of posts a fic in the same fandom, same pairing, that happens to have the same plot as your story. Before you ever posted or mentioned your story publicly, so they probably had the idea before you, and you actually unknowingly lifted it from their brain by way of long-distance fangirl osmosis.

(Bonus points if the posted story is long, quite well-written, and is garnering reviews like hotcakes, so it's not likely to be forgotten in the next week.)

So...what do you do? Write it off to coincidence and keep plugging away at your own story, hoping no one calls you on it? Contact the author of the other story and ask if they mind? Crawl under your futon and whine pathetically to your sister for an hour? All of the above?

(The annoying thing is, the posted story is quite sweet, from what I've skimmed, and I'd probably enjoy it if I weren't so distressed by the too-familiar parallels...)

ETA: Yes, I am this insecure - fortunately gnine is a wonderful little sister and has mostly fixed this for me, encouragingly laying out for me all the ways my story is different, and then working out with me how it could be even more different, with a bit of tweaking, that actually makes my story more solid. So s'all good, then (still debating contacting the other author, maybe when I finish writing myself...)

My original story for Shousetsu Bang*Bang is now up. For anyone in the mood for raucous, muddy, graphic boys love, fight shounen style:

the fun starts here.

Includes this Not Quite Work Safe but absolutely lovely pic, courtesy of gnine - thank you~!

This was, when I started it, intended to be a one-shot, a parody of a doujinshi cliche (three guesses which one). It quickly developed into something more, because I kind of sort of fell completely in love with Cale & Quest in about twelve hours, and now am itching to further explore them and their world...

--Incidentally, I haven't fallen completely off the face of the fanfic planet; I've been working on an older fic. Don't want to say more until I have the dang thing done...though by this time I doubt anyone remembers I ever wrote Saiyuki anyway. :P

Sometimes I like to be cruel to my own characters. Technically this is a side story to Illicit Miracles, but these guys are just minor antagonists thus far, and only the beginning of this story actually relates to the manga. Laszlo is the kind of character who, were he ever animated, would inspire music videos using every single Linkin Park song ever recorded, and really, that's all you need to know.
It's a little different from my usual; I'd love to know what you think.

Warnings for language, not-as-explicit-as-utopiantrunks-would-like male-male sex, and relationship angst.

( The Easy Life )

In the last couple years I've started to suffer the same syndrome that plagues many authors of multi-part fanfic. Namely, the dreaded "to be continued" that hasn't been. It's something I swore I would never do when I first started writing fic, because I so hated starting to read a good story and never being able to finish it. But now I have a couple incomplete fics that are going on two years old without yet a final chapter. And believe it or not, this is even more frustrating for me, the writer, than it is for the reader.

( In which I do not quite apologize, but rhapsodize at great length about the joy of writing, and go into gory detail about my obsessive fangirl tendencies. )

What it finally comes down to is what I've been saying all along--keep the faith, dear readers, the end is coming! I swear, the end is coming! There will just be a couple detours along the way...

For future reference: next time I write a novel, must remember to plot out the climax before actually arriving at it.

One would think that writing one's own characters, following one's own rules, it would be easy to make them do what one wants them to do. One would be sorrowfully mistaken, at least if one is a moron like me. These things usually work themselves out in the writing as I go, so I wasn't too worried. Except now I'm here, over a year after I started. And driven into the metaphorical ditch. I can't even skip ahead to the next scene, because the details of that hinge on exactly how this plays out.

The problem isn't the what, I know what needs to happen, it's the how. So the villain needs to do something evil, that's all very well. Except he's not doing it, because it might not be the brightest move at this juncture, and while he's completely batshit insane, he's not stupid. And the hero has to let him do it, or make it look like he's letting him, but the hero is not stupid either, even when his best friend's life is on the line. Moreover the villain knows the hero is not stupid, and thus is wary of tricks. So now I've got a locked-horns battle of wits, all it wants for is the Iocaine Powder.

This is going to be the longest original fic I've ever completed, when I complete it. I will complete it, dammit; I will figure this out, I will make them obey and it will be good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to ram my head a few more times into this brick wall.

So, hypothetically, with a deliberate self-insert, does one get extra points for making oneself a deity? albeit one that that one's favorite character would gladly run through if given half a chance?

Posted the epilogue of Seven Deaths tonight. Not the longest story I've written by a country mile, but it is the longest I've completed in a couple years. Seventy pages to get to the scene I wanted, and then another forty-five to resolve what was required to bring them to that point. In the end...I like the end. It's probably longer than it needs to be, but I've always been frustrated by stories that come to an immediate stop the moment the plot does. The aftermath can be as rewarding as the main event, sometimes.

Should take a breather from One Piece...the question is, R2B, DV, or the NaNo? Decisions, decisions...
...taking that breather won't be easy, mind, because an evil monster my dear naye has gifted me with a plotbunny that cannot be denied...she figured out how to break Zoro. mwahahaha!