Things that irritate me...

People who don't know to staple things once only and in the upper left corner of the paper.

SG-1 fanfic writers that write J/S ship while they are still in the direct chain of command. Putting everything else aside, Jack would never do it and certainly not do it casually and repeatedly. This was a man who, while in a time-loop and knowing that nothing he did would be remembered or have any consequences, still resigned his commission before even kissing Sam, for crying out loud. And he timed that so all that they would have time to do is kiss. If you have to ship them, please, I beg of you, at least address that particular canonical fact.

My airport flakin' out on me and therefore me having very restricted Internet access at home.

Having a work ethic that doesn't allow me to spend more than my break time at work catching up on my usual Internet activities.

People who complain about the governor declaring a 'draught emergency' on a day when some people did get some rain -- the keyword being some -- not everyone and certainly not around here. Why not take a ride out into the country and see the corn curling up in the fields and talk to the farmers who are already feeding hay to their animals because there is no good grazing available. Or better yet, just check out the people around who aren't wasting water by putting on their lawns. That dead brown look may be perfect for Arizona or Southern California, but it's not normal here.

The next door neighbor, whose alarm starts going off at 5 am and is still "beep-beep-beep beep-beep-beeping" at 7 when I leave the house.

ME. For getting hung up on the name for a race of people in my book and, rather than just putting nothing in and keep writing, I obsess and try to find the perfect word. I just can't seem to write about them without naming them correctly. I want it to be a concocted word (in other words, not a real one) and I want it to sound menacing and dangerous, but not completely evil. They are my world's version of Orks/Uruk-Hai, but I don't want them to be created evil; they a warrior people who fight for hire. But I need to write and I'm thinking this is just a way of stalling.

Despite how it looks, I'm not really in a bad mood, just irritated.

Problems writing...

I signed up to do a Sam Carter fic thinking that the assignment I get will give me the plot, all I have to do is write it. It’d be fun playing in the SG1 universe. However, the assignment really didn’t give me a plot at all. Instead, it listed a couple of requirements that would happily fit any fic I’d write: Team interaction, Sam as scientist and soldier, a little action, a little humor, no ship, no bad endings. There is no plot in that. Now, I have come up with a dozen different ideas, but none have any teeth. When I start writing them, they don’t even give me a scene!

I know what the problem is, too. I just don’t understand Sam. I love the character, mind, but I don’t understand her. To be honest, I have a really hard time understand most female characters on television, which is why I always write the guys.

Without an understanding of the character, I have no story, no flesh to hang on my skeleton of a plot, no reason for the characters to do anything at all. I need a plot to have a story, but I need character motivations to have a plot.

So, in an attempt to figure out how to write this story, I give you Sam Carter as I see her:( cut for those not interested in Sam )

I know all these things, but I don’t know why she is all these things. Why did she want to be an astronaut? To explore, to help humanity, to see Earth from orbit? Why does she stay a soldier when she is so obviously perfect for being a scientist? What is her center, what keeps her going, what stopped her from “settling” for Pete? What are her insecurities? What holds her back? More importantly, what drives her?

I know what drives Jack, Daniel and Teal’c. I even know what drives Jonas and Cameron. But what drives Sam? A thirst for knowledge? A drive to succeed? A quest to explore? A promise to someone or herself?

This is the key to writing Sam (or any character) and I’m completely missing it.