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stunt_muppet at 08:46pm on 03/11/2010 under fandom, fanfics, life, please hire me, writing
stunt_muppet at 08:46pm on 03/11/2010 under fandom, fanfics, life, please hire me, writingI don't think I should have to give kids candy if they don't even bother to put on a Halloween costume. >:( Kids these days, don't they know all the hard work and dedication we used to make our parents put in for a little free candy? No respect, I'm telling you, none at all.
1. So, the rally on Saturday! My uncle and I drove, so we avoided what I heard were impossible Metro crowds and actually managed to arrive at the rally before it started. Unfortunately we weren't that early, and ended up standing almost ten blocks back from the stage; because Comedy Central had only applied for a permit for 60,000 attendees, they could only set up speakers and Jumbotrons 3 blocks from the stage at the furthest. So we couldn't see or hear anything most of the time, and we ended up cutting and running after "Love Train" finished because, hey, at least we showed up. But the atmosphere was worth it - everyone was friendly and having fun, and people would cheer when other people managed to climb trees to get a better view, and lots of people asked to take pictures of our sign, which was amusing.
Two highlights of the signage: Someone in full old-school Cobra Commander costume holding a sign reading "Fear the Rise of the G(Cobra-Symbol)P", and someone up about a block from me holding up a banner that read "Dean and Castiel have a more profound bond", which made me laugh rather a lot once I figured out what it said- which was unfortunate because there was pretty much no way to explain what I was laughing about to my uncle and his friends.
2. So did anyone else get very few trick-or-treaters this year? A lot of my co-workers got very few when they normally get lots, and we had maybe ten groups the whole night when we're usually opening the door all night. And as mentioned above, a lot of them had no costume and didn't bother to even engage in the formality of saying "trick or treat". And I don't think you should get candy if you're going to put in that little effort, okay, if you're going to shake me down for candy you could at least work a little for it.
3. I might possibly have a job! The place I volunteer just got a sales position open, and while I don't know how much I'd get paid for it, it is something, at least, and the shop isn't as crowded in the holiday season as something like Wal-Mart (where I'm pretty sure employees have been trampled to death on Black Friday). This does present the potential problem of me having several doctors' appointments and things scheduled during the next few weeks that might screw up my working schedule, but still. POTENTIAL EMPLOYMENT, YEAH. \o\ /o/
4. Thought about maybe doing some kind of analogue to NaNo this year, wherein I would at least try to write every day, hopefully at least 500 words, and have at least one long fic or three short fics finished by the end of November.
And then I had two whole days where I didn't get anything written, and have been in a funk since the last week or so where I hate my writing and drawing and am convinced that I will never create anything that anyone can enjoy boo hoo woe is me. So there's that plan pretty much shot. Anyone else have days like that, and any advice on how to get over them?
It would be very nice to just freewrite, put down anything that comes into my head. But it doesn't work like that, alas.
5. Speaking of writing, I have something I'd like to ask you all about concerning beta-ing.
I...haven't been using a beta lately. And that's bad, because I also have a tendency to miss typos and, especially, tense changes. Mostly because, once I've finished writing something, I'm generally so tired of looking at it that I can't see it objectively anyway and don't want to look at it anymore. And while I could certainly take the time to correct typos and mistakes if a beta pointed them out, after I've completed a story and organized everything and gotten the plot all in order I don't want to have to rewrite huge chunks of it.
Besides, while I'm quite open to suggestion and outside ideas while I'm still hashing out a story (which is why, ideally, I'd have co-brainstormers rather than a beta for the finished product, to talk things over and bounce ideas off of, but then it has to be a story I'm comitted to and I have to keep track of everything and also I'm bad at replying to e-mails), but once I've got things set enough to actually write I'm generally pretty attached to the order of events and some turns of phrase in a fic. Having to change a large part of it will throw me off or I'll feel like I'll have to rewrite almost everything to make new sections (suggested by a beta) fit.
I've been thinking about requesting a beta just for grammar, spelling, and mechanical errors, but I feel like that's being really stuck-up, like "oh my stories are perfectly plotted there's nothing you could possibly do to make them better". And it's not true, I know that, a lot of my stories would be vastly improved by thorough crit, I'm just too damn lazy and self-loathing to want it, hurr. But even having a SPAG beta is better than having no beta, right?
Uuugh, writing is hard you guys. :( And there are so many things I'm almost done with but the few unwritten sections are driving me up the wall. Not the best position when you're already in a why-do-I-bother mood.
6. To make things worse I've been thinking of trying to do something more with that Sari/Bee/Twins fic, but every time I try to think of a direction for it to go it starts becoming all ~serious business~ and you really can't have that when you're writing about robot puberty. I mean, either one of the twins blabs to Sentinel about their being a techno-organic among the Autobots and he wants to know why Optimus has been hiding this from him and there's ~drama~ or Sari somehow manages to damage her body why trying to figure out what exactly it does and there's ~angst~ and idek, I just wanted to write crackfic, dammit, why can't I do that. D:
7. Also Amazon apparently cancelled my order for the Almanac Volume 2 because I forgot to renew it, so now I'll probably never get my hands on it unless I'm willing to fork over $300 on the secondary market. Why exactly is this thing so hard to get a hold of?
Feh, I should quit whining and get off the computer, given that this window has been open since about 2 p.m. Don't want to ruin my eyes. Sorry for being a terrible commenter and all.
1. So, the rally on Saturday! My uncle and I drove, so we avoided what I heard were impossible Metro crowds and actually managed to arrive at the rally before it started. Unfortunately we weren't that early, and ended up standing almost ten blocks back from the stage; because Comedy Central had only applied for a permit for 60,000 attendees, they could only set up speakers and Jumbotrons 3 blocks from the stage at the furthest. So we couldn't see or hear anything most of the time, and we ended up cutting and running after "Love Train" finished because, hey, at least we showed up. But the atmosphere was worth it - everyone was friendly and having fun, and people would cheer when other people managed to climb trees to get a better view, and lots of people asked to take pictures of our sign, which was amusing.
Two highlights of the signage: Someone in full old-school Cobra Commander costume holding a sign reading "Fear the Rise of the G(Cobra-Symbol)P", and someone up about a block from me holding up a banner that read "Dean and Castiel have a more profound bond", which made me laugh rather a lot once I figured out what it said- which was unfortunate because there was pretty much no way to explain what I was laughing about to my uncle and his friends.
2. So did anyone else get very few trick-or-treaters this year? A lot of my co-workers got very few when they normally get lots, and we had maybe ten groups the whole night when we're usually opening the door all night. And as mentioned above, a lot of them had no costume and didn't bother to even engage in the formality of saying "trick or treat". And I don't think you should get candy if you're going to put in that little effort, okay, if you're going to shake me down for candy you could at least work a little for it.
3. I might possibly have a job! The place I volunteer just got a sales position open, and while I don't know how much I'd get paid for it, it is something, at least, and the shop isn't as crowded in the holiday season as something like Wal-Mart (where I'm pretty sure employees have been trampled to death on Black Friday). This does present the potential problem of me having several doctors' appointments and things scheduled during the next few weeks that might screw up my working schedule, but still. POTENTIAL EMPLOYMENT, YEAH. \o\ /o/
4. Thought about maybe doing some kind of analogue to NaNo this year, wherein I would at least try to write every day, hopefully at least 500 words, and have at least one long fic or three short fics finished by the end of November.
And then I had two whole days where I didn't get anything written, and have been in a funk since the last week or so where I hate my writing and drawing and am convinced that I will never create anything that anyone can enjoy boo hoo woe is me. So there's that plan pretty much shot. Anyone else have days like that, and any advice on how to get over them?
It would be very nice to just freewrite, put down anything that comes into my head. But it doesn't work like that, alas.
5. Speaking of writing, I have something I'd like to ask you all about concerning beta-ing.
I...haven't been using a beta lately. And that's bad, because I also have a tendency to miss typos and, especially, tense changes. Mostly because, once I've finished writing something, I'm generally so tired of looking at it that I can't see it objectively anyway and don't want to look at it anymore. And while I could certainly take the time to correct typos and mistakes if a beta pointed them out, after I've completed a story and organized everything and gotten the plot all in order I don't want to have to rewrite huge chunks of it.
Besides, while I'm quite open to suggestion and outside ideas while I'm still hashing out a story (which is why, ideally, I'd have co-brainstormers rather than a beta for the finished product, to talk things over and bounce ideas off of, but then it has to be a story I'm comitted to and I have to keep track of everything and also I'm bad at replying to e-mails), but once I've got things set enough to actually write I'm generally pretty attached to the order of events and some turns of phrase in a fic. Having to change a large part of it will throw me off or I'll feel like I'll have to rewrite almost everything to make new sections (suggested by a beta) fit.
I've been thinking about requesting a beta just for grammar, spelling, and mechanical errors, but I feel like that's being really stuck-up, like "oh my stories are perfectly plotted there's nothing you could possibly do to make them better". And it's not true, I know that, a lot of my stories would be vastly improved by thorough crit, I'm just too damn lazy and self-loathing to want it, hurr. But even having a SPAG beta is better than having no beta, right?
Uuugh, writing is hard you guys. :( And there are so many things I'm almost done with but the few unwritten sections are driving me up the wall. Not the best position when you're already in a why-do-I-bother mood.
6. To make things worse I've been thinking of trying to do something more with that Sari/Bee/Twins fic, but every time I try to think of a direction for it to go it starts becoming all ~serious business~ and you really can't have that when you're writing about robot puberty. I mean, either one of the twins blabs to Sentinel about their being a techno-organic among the Autobots and he wants to know why Optimus has been hiding this from him and there's ~drama~ or Sari somehow manages to damage her body why trying to figure out what exactly it does and there's ~angst~ and idek, I just wanted to write crackfic, dammit, why can't I do that. D:
7. Also Amazon apparently cancelled my order for the Almanac Volume 2 because I forgot to renew it, so now I'll probably never get my hands on it unless I'm willing to fork over $300 on the secondary market. Why exactly is this thing so hard to get a hold of?
Feh, I should quit whining and get off the computer, given that this window has been open since about 2 p.m. Don't want to ruin my eyes. Sorry for being a terrible commenter and all.
it's so cold in my house :(
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