Neil Young said it's better to burn out than fade away, which is good, because burning out is EXACTLY what I've been up to these days. But, on to something of substance.

Earlier this month (I told you I'm burning out) Nancy Werlin, who is always made of awesome, sent me this link: Since You Asked: I'm addicted to Harry Potter fanfiction! (Salon, requires site pass, yadda yadda.) It's probably been talked about ad nauseum in the weeks I've been away from my friendslist but hey, it's never too late to add my two cents.

I read Cary Tennis's response, and I'll be damned: It was generally encouraging! Basically, his response is that writing fanfic is (are you listening, Anne Rice?) not dangerous and that there are many worse things than creativity based around the work of another. What Tennis doesn't address though, is something I put in my reply email to Nancy: Fanfic is more than just writing, it's community. I don't really expect Tennis to know this, because it's something you can't know without witnessing fandom up close. Fandom brings people together who might not ever meet otherwise. I mean, I don't know about the rest of you, but when people ask me why I write fanfic my first response is always, "Because it's fun." It's not "practice" for "real" writing, not for me, because I don't want to write fiction. It's not an attempt at gaining fame or infamy because we all know there are much better ways to do that. I like to write but I'm a perfectionist and if I can't write like M.T. Anderson then for me there's no point in writing original fiction. Despite travel costs to cons and the price of books and movie tickets, fandom's still cheaper than a coke habit.

The Editor's Choice letters in response to Cary's column vary from "I'm okay, you're okay, fandom is okay as long as it's part of an otherwise balanced life" to focusing more on the idea that the LW calls herself "addicted" to fanfic. Personally, I think she used that term because it's dramatic and because she couldn't come up with a better word. The letter from the woman who got into fandom because she needed adult mental space while staying at home with two small children on page one of the ECs resonated a little with me because I came to fandom also needing mental space (but it was from living with an immobilizing back injury, not kids). I like to think that I've got enough of a handle on my fandom involvement to keep it for what it always has been to me, a beneficial and creative place to play and meet other people with the same creative interests.

My other thoughts on this letter:

MediaBistro's FishBowl LA heralds the letter as unending evidence of the weirdness of Salon's readership, because a female PhD in her thirties is interested in HP fanfic. One would think that people in the publishing industry would know a thing or two about fandom, but apparently not. Hey, MediaBistro, Jensen Ackles knows something you don't. In his words: What's funny is the network always talks about how we skew to a younger audience, but at the events we go to, the ones who show up at the set are usually women ages 30 to 50. It's actually pretty cool.

Women aged 30 to 50? You mean, like, most of the people at Phoenix Rising? Like most of the membership of the most popular LJ HP fanfic communities? I don't know why, but I'm continually amazed at who the outside world thinks writes fanfic. With Harry Potter one could perhaps believe that it was teenagers. After all, they're the target audience of the HP books. But if that's the case, who do they think is writing CSI fic? Star Trek? Numb3rs? And let me tell you something: It can be damn hard to meet new friends if you're in that 30-50 age range. I don't know where I'd be socially or even professionally if it wasn't for my fandom involvement. Fandom has allowed me to meet people who are now not just my fellow fans, but my friends and colleagues. When I get together with my fandom friends we do talk fandom, but we talk about a lot of other things, too, things that MediaBistro would *gasp* probably consider more normal and even acceptable, like books and careers and our families.

Still drowning in work. I knew 2007 would be like this. I'll try to be better about updating once I finish some fics...and book reviews, and the Massive Work Project of Doom, Vol. 1, and committee stuff, and reading, and some more book reviews, and...

Tags: fandom, writing
780: the king is gone but he's not forgotten

Maureen Johnson on what it REALLY takes to be a writer.

I love her blog.

Contrary to what the subject of this post says I do believe that kinesthetic learners can be writers. I'm one myself, but I think I lack a lot of the other traits it takes to produce a novel, like discipline and creativity. But there's a lot to be said for the ability to sit. Most people I know find that their ability to sit increases as they get older but I'm finding the opposite is true for myself. As I get older, I find that I cannot think well while sitting down. I pace my office while thinking of book discussion questions or what my next reader's advisory list should be. I never email or call my colleagues if I can walk to where they are and talk to them in person. When writing, I have to get up and move around at regular intervals. I do some of my best ficcing while outside running/walking, which of course is useless for doing any actual writing. This applies to shopping, too: I don't like to buy things I can't touch, save for books and DVDs.

In theory I guess I can sit to watch TV, but even when I'm sitting I like to stretch, or fidget, or change positions on the couch, or sort through my makeup, or write. My brain is kinesthetic, too, perhaps. Maybe that's why Mr. Cedar tells me I always hog the bed (which is not true; it's just that he doesn't want to sleep in the portion of the bed I allot to him).

So...those of you that can't think sitting down but have a job or a hobby that requires you to sit for long periods of time, what are your secrets for getting work done?

Tags: writing
126: restless

For fandomers:

Define hurt/comfort, and the elements that must be seen, or that usually appear, in a hurt/comfort fic.

And to satisfy my curiosity, list the fandoms in which you participate (reading, writing, art, discussing, etc.). If hurt/comfort means something different in each of your fandoms, say so.

I ask because I've been playing in a new fandom as of late, and during a discussion with my beta, she said something that made me realize that I'm not sure what makes for a hurt/comfort fic. Humor me?

Am world's worst LJ friend of late. I apologize. Pumpkin spice lattes for everyone except countouttheday, who gets a shaken iced tea.

Tags: fic, writing
126: full
780: you've got to change your evil ways, baby

Well, first, writing fic is fun. It's no-stress writing (short of fest deadlines). It's my chance to experiment with different writing styles, exploring different characters, etc., without the stress of having to juggle all the balls of writing your standard novel.

Besides the fun factor, though, is my personal feeling that no matter what happens in Deathly Hallows we will never have a truly closed canon.

Think about it. There are about 135 characters that appear, for however long or short a period of time, in OotP. That's 135 backstories waiting to be told, 135 ways of living and speaking, 135 personal histories that got them to where they appeared in the books. There is No Way J.K. Rowling, despite her verbosity, can completely close the canon, telling us everything we ever wanted to know about everyone we've ever wanted to know about. I have doubts that I'll ever learn what I've truly wanted to know since PoA: the reason Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Potters to Voldemort, and leading up to that, why no one, particularly Sirius, saw anything in Peter beforehand that would lead them/him to think that Peter might not be all he says he is. I also want to resolve the ongoing (very friendly!!) argument I have with psychic_serpent over whether Percy is a spy for the Order or not (she says yes, I say no). I want to see more of Narcissa Malfoy because I think she's tough and sharp. I want to know exactly how one gets a job working as a curse-breaker for Gringotts. The list goes on. There's no way all of that can fit in the books.

Then, there's my personal rule: I like to finish what I start, even if it takes me forever. I can say "Canon-compliant through the end of OotP; does not include information from HBP and DH" with the best of them. Just because X amount of canon exists doesn't mean you have to incorporate all of it into every single fic you put out. It works for TV show fandoms and there's no reason it shouldn't work for book fandoms. Despite the overwhelming RL work load (it's a 2007 thing; I ended up on way too many committees the same year I took on a major writing project, plus my regular reading and work), I do try to tickle my fics every once in a while. They WILL get done (I promise, ellen_fremedon!!), but alas, sometimes RL has to come first.

Lately all I've wanted to do is sit around and watch Numb3rs. That is, when I'm not reading Numb3rs fic. I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR ANOTHER FANDOM. ACK.


Audioslave - Set It Off

Tags: fandom, harry potter, writing
126: hopeful

Once upon a time, I sent an email to zeisgeist in which I lamented my nonstop reading of YA novels. You see, it's something I'm supposed to do as part of my job, but when it comes to attempting to think creatively, it kills my muse.

I could write a YA novel, I wrote to Lara, and I could have it be a retelling of my favorite fairy tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Oh. Like East by Edith Pattou.

Well, that's all right, I continued. I could write a book about a percussionist in a family crisis. Or the time it takes to rebuild a damaged reputation. I could write about kids at a summer arts camp, or I could write a book about anything I wanted, as long as the whole thing was in sestinas. Or maybe the future effects of consumerism. Frankenstein meets My Fair Lady. Or maybe something pink and fluffy, but with a message of substance.

Except I can't write any of those books, I realized, because they've all been written already. Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. Story of a Girl. Dramarama. Keesha's House. Feed. Shattering Glass. Most everything by Meg Cabot. If I didn't read so much, maybe I'd have more confidence in the thought that I could write a YA novel. But on the other end of that sword, it's really, REALLY easy to tell when a YA author hasn't read a lot of YA. The voice is usually wrong somehow, whether it sounds too old and clearly adult, or too young.

But in today's USA Today Books section, this appears, and it makes me think that maybe I'm going about this project all wrong. If publishers are selling adult novels on familiarity (which, yes, has been done in YA for years but didn't really make me feel much better), then maybe I could build a novel around that idea of familiarity, tell something that's already been told. Then the challenge is to make it sellable to those that have already seen the original, and not necessarily make it better, but make it different. (But not too different, because then you lose the whole familiarity argument and then it becomes a round of "There's a Hole in my Bucket, Dear Liza, Dear Liza.") Working with this familiarity is the entire foundation of reader's advisory, anyway. "I liked The Chocolate War. What else do you have like it?" Now, reader's advisory has crossed into movies, and not just movies made from books. YA librarians know this well; when we're faced with that kid whose mom has dragged him to the library because he just has to read something on The List (Accelerated Reader, summer reading list, pick your poison) for school the question of "What do you like to read?" doesn't work so well. I've taken to asking those reluctant readers, "What TV shows or movies do you like? What do you like to do in your spare time? Have your friends mentioned any books lately that they thought were good?" So I guess I could say that it's the publishers who are late to this party, not me, but that doesn't make me feel any better.

I think this is why I write fanfiction instead of original works. At least then, I KNOW I don't have to try being original only to find I'm writing a story that someone else has already told, and better.

Enough procrastinating. I have sixteen book discussion guides to write in the next ten work days.

Tags: angsting, books, writing
126: working
780: if I'd only thought of something charming to say

Entry from last week that I'm just finishing now because OMG have 20 books to read in the next 2 weeks:

Now that authors and artists have been revealed at merry_smutmas, I can say that I didn't fool kennahijja for a second. I wrote A Wolf by Half for jenadamson. Link is not safe for work, children, hardcore poets, those who don't like fanfic, or lycanthrophobes. (Lycanphobes? Lycanthrophobics? People who fear werewolves.)

In the end, this fic turned out really well, I think, but it was HARD to write. Many thanks and love go to starrysummer for beta reading, and to fasterthanlight for use of "fucking-damn." Also, SO MUCH thank you to hogwarts_today for listing it as an Editor's Pick.

( About the process of writing this fic. Feel free to skip. )

Oy, I am TIRED. And I have to WRITE and CLEAN, meh.



Billie Holiday - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm

Tags: fic, writing
126: cold

...I learned from books I read in 2006.

Stephen King and Neil Gaiman say all the time that the way to become a good writer is to be a good reader, and although I may not have aspirations of publishing, I do have aspirations of being very good at this fanfic hobby of mine. So here is what I've learned from my past year of reading, and where I learned it.

How to write:

an incredibly scary story with no blood or otherworldly monsters: The Rules of Survival</