(no subject)

It's funny 'cause it's true: selenak's version of the fannish life cycle, condensed. Also along those lines: helpful tips on how not to be batshit in fandom (for shippers) by misscam.

WHY am I still AWAKE. *wanders off towards general direction of bed*

Best LoTR dream EVER

... so now I'm up after four hours of sleep because I was awakened by the phone, which turned out to be my co-artist on this freelance job. Of all the people not to realize that I wouldn't be up at eight a.m., you'd think an artist would know better. *g*

But it was almost worth it, because I was awakened in the middle of the best Lord of the Rings dream of all time, and I'm glad I didn't segue into another dream and forget about it.

There was some sort of complicated dream logic to explain this, which I don't remember the details of, but I think it included something along the lines of all of the Ring bearers having been killed, and the war was going really badly, and so, Gollum ended up in charge of the armies standing against Sauron.

And the sad/pathetic/hilarious thing is that he was trying to do a really good job! But, being Gollum, was doomed to fail because he was absolutely terrible at it! We hadn't even made it to the actual generaling, because the entire dream, at least up to the point when I woke up, dealt with the politics of holding together this loose coalition of different forces from different (mostly made up by my subconscious) parts of Middle Earth. And leaving aside whether Gollum would suck at actual military strategy (answer: probably yes), this was what he was really bad at. Gollum + diplomacy = really bad idea. Since they were independent groups of fighters rather than one unified army, he'd lose a battalion or twelve every time one of his generals would stomp off in a huff, which would basically happen every time he opened his mouth. Around the time that I woke up, he'd just managed to thoroughly insult the (female) leader of a bunch of guerrilla-style wilderness fighters that he really needed.

He had some sort of advisor that actually kinda knew what they were doing ... I don't remember who or what it was (Gandalf? the ghost of Aragorn? an Ent? I think it was more of a "what" than a "who"), but I vaguely remember that the entire process of "advising" Supreme General Gollum reduced down to telling him constantly "No, don't say that! Don't say ... oh shiiiit ..."

Linkdump

fandom_stocking is taking signups! I'm signing up this year for the first time -- last year I had a lot of fun going around stuffing stockings, so I wanted to play too this year!

Other linkage ... this is -- well, I honestly can't figure out if it's the most awesome thing I've ever seen, or the silliest thing I've ever seen. Maybe a little of both? These women made an Elfquest fan trailer with really astonishingly good costumes and mind-blowing resemblances between the actresses and the elves. Not only can I tell exactly who everyone is at first glance, but they've even captured the way they stand and move from the comics, and their facial expressions. I didn't know it was possible to simulate the Elfquest elves that closely with real live actors. At the same time ... let's just say that some things which look just fine in a comic become LOLarious when played out by actual human beings. >_>

I have been reading the most awesome book on writing, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I'm pretty sure someone on my flist recommended this to me awhile back, and it is alternately interesting, hilarious and inspiring. As well as just being a fun book to read, there are a number of useful tidbits on writing, although it's hard to sit down and condense it into how-to-write bullet points -- a lot of it resonates with me, but it's as much how she says it as what she says. She has a way of describing the creative process, especially the messier parts of it, that makes me go "Oh thank goodness it's not just me". Highly recommended.