Partly

So glad to see you are being part of Yuletide! Thank you for writing a story for me. Please have fun because that’s why we write, right?

Short version: I want fanfic to fit into the tale that was told on TV or the big screen. I want more of the characters I fell in love with. Canon is a good, good thing. Friendship is the only ship that interests me because it’s the basis of everything else.

Recently I got a comment on a fic that said it was "competence porn". That is what I love in fic. I want my characters to be competent. Not perfect. Not always right. But competent. Good at what they're good at. They're not stupid. They're not inane. These characters aren't bullies or sadists. I like my characters to be competent versions of who they are. I like characters who are smart and strong and flawed and gloriously human. The characters I like may do stupid things, but they are never stupid.

( The philosophical version: )

Specific 2011 requests:
24: 24 is all about Jack Bauer. He's a walking philosophical debate, a paradox presented in human form. So my request is: Jack, being Jack. I'm really fond of outside POV when it comes to Jack. Any season would be fine, including after the end of the series. Any other characters are fine, too, but Jack is the reason I love the show.

In Plain Sight: Marshal Marshall Mann is my hero. I love him to little tiny bits. Mary is also completely awesome. Any and all interplay between them would be greatly appreciated. I love snark and concern and friendship that they have.

Person of Interest: Needless to say John Reese is everything that I love about a character. And Harold Finch is wonderfully cryptic. I love how they are both damaged and yet they are working on being better. I'd love to see a slice of life where the two of them just accidentally come upon someone needing help - a car accident or some kine of disaster/emergency. Outside POV would be really great in this case.

Stingray: YAY! I am completely in love with this fandom and I'm so very happy to see it here! Needless to say, I love Ray. I would love to see a fic set in the future with an older Ray looking back on his life. Or a POV of someone who had once met Ray or who Ray had helped looking back at it. Or a future fic where workers at a hospital or nursing home are looking into who the mysterious man is...

Likes: Competence. Friendship. Dialogue. Action. Plot. Outsider POV. Cannon. I love, LOVE, LOVE crossovers, the whole "outsider POV" is made so much more interesting when the "outsider" is someone we know.

Dislikes: AU. Crack. OOC. I dislike fics that focus on ships and pairings, even when the pairing is cannon.

Thank you!

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On and off all day today. Yay me! Do I win a prize?

*headdesk*

I'm going over some old writing/critiques and I've come across the comment that I use the words "he/him" too many times. The scene has only one character in it -- it's a struggle to survive. Not sure how to write it with out using he/him. I understand that I need to vary my sentence structure so I don't start out each sentence/paragraph with the "He ---> whatever action he does" (and I did watch that) but I'm really at a loss as to how to write the scene without using he/him quite a few times. I wonder if it would have the same impact if I was telling it from the first person POV and was using the pronoun 'I' instead of 'he'? I checked, there were sentences, complete paragraphs even, without the word he. Of course, the notation on those is that I spend too much time on description, that I need action to move the scene along. *headdesk*

I was also told that I shouldn't write scenes with only one character in it. Okay...

I had several very hard critiques with my writer's group and shortly thereafter dropped out. I wasn't writing much and didn't feel like I was getting anything out of the group except the knowledge that I would never measure up. I will admit that there were many other things going on at that time, such as losing my job, so I'm not sure how much of that feeling was accurate and how much was my insecurity, but I do remember one of the members saying, basically, that she didn't care about the characters, found the plot boring, had a difficult time envisioning my world and that "she didn't care enough about anything to keep reading".

I'd like to imagine that my style just wasn't matching theirs but it's hard to hold onto that when they don't like the writing, characters, plot or setting. I used to be better at self-visualizing; perhaps I was just better at self-delusion.

What brought this on? I was thinking of doing NaNoWriMo this year, just to get me back writing. Of course, I say that a lot and the fact that I haven't ever managed to do any writing should make it glaringly obvious that I'm not a reliable or believable source of... well, anything.

Not a complete non sequitur: I don't do "to-do lists" because they inevitably become a "look at everything I failed at" list. I find that true of the run-of-the-mill lists like "do dishes, fold clothes, clean house" and it seems so much worse when applied to something like writing. I doubt I need more in my life to demonstrate that I'm not quite up to snuff.

Wow. I'm a bundle of cheer, aren't I? New rule: don't read the critiques. I would say that I should just focus on the positive parts of the critiques, only the aren't any. I kid you not: In the four crits that I have reviewed today, there is not ONE SINGLE comment on something that I did well. Not one "good word choice" or "good description".

Better idea: Tossing the old critiques without reading them. Perhaps I'm just being insecure about all this, but better insecure that completely depressed, right?

Snagged from bluedelft

In honor of All Hallow's Eve, I'm inviting trick-or-treaters to my 'door.' Comment "trick-or-treat" to this post and...well, you know the drill. Treats can be anything that strikes my fancy (pics of fave actors or pairings, one sentence fics, graphics, a few words why I'm glad to have you on my flist, etc. etc.). The more "houses" to visit the more fun it'll be, so go ahead, open your journal and help spread the fun!

Added: If there is a specific fandom/character you like, let me know. And, knowing me, it'll probably be words rather than pics, but hey, it' Halloween, anything is possible!

Narrated by Steve Jobs:



Every computer I've ever bought has been a Mac. I've owned PCs -- but I got those second hand and replaced the bum parts to make a reasonable computer for a while. But they are constantly at war with themselves and once I spent more time in maintenance then in doing what I want on them, they were gotten rid of.

My favorite part of owning a Mac is when my internet it wacky and I call Charter. When they start with the "this is what you have to do", tell them that I own a Mac and that the problem is on their end. And it is. You plug it in and it works, none of those stupid settings or viruses. The techs know that, I say "Mac" and they skip right to the part where they fix it on their end - you know, the end run on PCs.

But more than that, I love the feeling of freedom I get from a Mac. I don't have to know code and I'm not locked into learning the underpinnings of a program. I can just do what I want to do. It's smooth and effortless and lets me do and be. If I need it done, there's an app for that.

I love what Steve Jobs did with Apple:

I love that Apple products are rebellious, yet elegant. I love that they brought style and flair to computers. I love that they made effortless important. I love that they are all about doing things.

I love that Steve Jobs started Pixar -- once again a company that used technology but celebrated people. Toy Story is completely computer generated, but it has more heart and soul than most live action films.

The most important thing, tho, that I think Steve Jobs did, was to show us that corporations are really people - Apple is a corporation, but Steve Jobs never let it become faceless, leaderless, soulless. Instead of getting rid of our corporations, we should demand that they become what Steve Jobs has shown they should be.