sholio | *falls asleep on keyboard*

falls asleep on keyboard

I should really go to bed ...

We're almost caught up on Supernatural; two more episodes to go. And I got both House and Numb3rs for Christmas, so which shall I watch next? Decisions ... :-)

I've been going through and polishing up some of my older original stories and posting them on my other LJ. Today's story is one that makes me giggle every time I read it: Henchmen, a tale of two out-of-work henchmen trying to make a living by other means. Flower arranging, say. *Hee*. I need to write more with them. If you like my sense of humor on the goofier SGA stories, then you may like this one.

It's kind of interesting to me, looking at these older stories, just how MUCH I've actually improved over the last few years. Heck, I've improved an awful lot just since I've been writing SGA. Surprisingly, I really do think that reading slash (which I'd never done before) has been good for my writing skills, because good slash uses language in a different sort of way not only from most genfic, but from most published novels as well. And I think it's having a bit of an impact on the way that I put words together, especially descriptive passages.

I'm actually starting to wrap up most of the ficathon stories. I have one drawing and two SGA ficathon stories to go, plus Derry's non-SGA one. Everything but Derry's story is started, and I even have some ideas for that. And work is really slow right now, so I can write fic at work -- which is always good for getting stuff done.

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Hey! So, I started reading your Henchman story, but I get the impression from the A/N at the top that it's not the first in the line. Can you point me to where you started? I just want to be able to see them a bit better, physically. That being said, I LOVED what I read. Reminded me a little of a fun author called Glen Cook, who to me writes a little like a mix between Rex Stout and Alan Dean Foster (everyone always reminds me of someone else...LOL!). Anyway, that's me saying I want to read more, so...where can I start? Or should I start here?

And speaking as someone who has definitely grown as a writer over the last ten years, I know the feeling of looking back at your old stuff and wondering at how differently you write now. I'm still not at your level in terms of phrase turning (i.e. your awesome wit), but I'm trying to get there!

I've never read Glen Cook -- but thank you! Now I want to look for his books ... hm, I have an Amazon.com gift certificate left over from Christmas ... and not at my level, MY ASS -- you write beautifully and you do gorgeous dialogue. :)

About where to start ... that is kind of a toughie, because I've been writing the stories in the order in which they occur to me, which is not exactly chronological, and certain key stories are still unwritten. They're designed to stand alone and be at least relatively comprehensible no matter what order they're read in. Of the ones that are completed now, this one (http://community.livejournal.com/laylalawlor/17133.html) is the earliest in the chronology, and this (http://community.livejournal.com/laylalawlor/16647.html) takes place after. (Obviously, I haven't been posting them in order, either.)

Also, if you want to know what Frank, Fleetwood and the bodyguards look like ... they're all characters from a graphic novel I've been serializing online. There's a good scene in this chapter (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/laylalawlor/huntersmoon/series.php?view=archive&chapter=1291) -- the whole chapter loads at once and it takes a little while (just so you know); scroll down past the nightclub scene and you'll get to the Frank scene.

(Chronologically, the graphic novel takes place a couple of years after "Henchmen".)

Confused yet? *grin*

And I got both House and Numb3rs for Christmas, so which shall I watch next? Decisions ... :-)

I vote for Numb3rs. I adore Hugh Laurie (and always have, ever since Balckadder) but my professional quibbles with House have reached a point that not only do people refuse to watch it with me, but I can't watch it myself (even for Mr Laurie's exceptional perfomance) without getting annoyed at how truly appalling the medicine is (and I've got a pretty good filter after having read h/c fanfic for years).

But those are my issues, not yours. Dramatically they're both great. Numb3rs does have the Eppes brothers though... *smirk*

And no hurry on the non-SGA fic. Although I'm really looking forward to reading it still (might watch the movie again to refresh the fannish squee-factor LOL), I'm also lapping up the SGA stuff you're writing.

I've been down the South Coast (of NSW) with my family and internetless since 23rd Dec. But I took "Monster Slayer" and "Shattered Things" with me to read. Awesome, both of them. The Carson-Rodney switcheroo was particularly neat! with wonderful h/c for all day boyz in it too!

And so... sheeeee's baaacck! Hee!

*hee*! She's back!

Hope you had a good vacation. How's that Tao episode review coming, anyhow? ;p

Thanks for the comments on the fics. I've been wanting to do that amnesia switch for awhile now, only I was originally going to do it with John and Rodney -- but actually, I think it worked beter this way!

I enjoy Supernatural a lot, but for some reason, really don't feel inspired to search out fics for it. that's been with a number of my TV shows - I'll be an avid watcher, but don't feel as much of an urge to search out fics for it.

But I've always, since the very first season, wanted more and more and more fics for SG1 and Atlantis. And I've really enjoyed your fics, so I'm glad that you are so inspired ;)

So far, it's looking pretty much the same for me. I like Supernatural but I'm not running out to read fic the way I did with SGA. (And thanks for the compliment! *blush*)

At least some of it, for me, is that canon changes so fast in SPN -- as the characters' relationships evolve, fic would quickly become AU. And then, too, canon is just supplying most of what we look for in fic. I've discussed this with

xparrot in the past ... that there's hardly any incentive to read or write fic in a fandom where canon supplies most of the character development, angst and h/c that would normally need to be supplied by fic.

So, since you say your writing has improved, do you have any advice for someone who would like to write fic but is terrified of actually posting anything? Getting ideas is not the problem. I have a number of ideas, but never get around actually get done writing them out. I stop and re-write the same little bit, over and over, until I get frustrated, tell myself I can't write worth crap, and then give up. To use a couple of cliches here, I'm my own worst enemy and my own worst critc. I really do need to get over that. I have one idea for a Lorne-centric SGA fic that I really want to write and it's really bugging me that I can't get it done.

I think my biggest piece of advice would be to just sit down and write. Seriously. Because I *know* how hard it is to do that, and yet, it really doesn't have to be. No one but you is ever going to see what you write as you write it, and it's okay if it's not perfect the first time through. You can always fix what you don't like later. Once it's down on paper (or computer, as the case may be) then you can improve the parts that you aren't happy with, but it's actually easier to do that when you have a large chunk of it written. And once you have something written, you can ask someone to look it over for you (this is, to me, one of the greatest things about LJ -- it is SO much easier to find betas than it used to be! I never had my work beta'd for years and years because I didn't really know anyone to ask).

But the big thing is just to write. The gorgeous thing about writing is that you really can't mess it up. It isn't performance art; anything you don't like can be fixed. :-)

But the big thing is just to write.

Crap. That's what I was afraid you were going to say. I've been told that and I know it's true. I really want to write that Lorne fic. I have the idea and a few paragraphs written, so now I just need to get over my worry and self-consciousness, sit my butt down in a chair, and write the thing already.

To make matters worse, I think I might be trying to subconsciously torture myself with this. I'm writing it in first person point of view. It includes Rodney who, even though I love the character to death, is turning out to be hard for me to write well. And to top it all off, there's also whumping involved for poor Major Lorne. That means there's also medical stuff that I'm not sure about.

Okay, I'll stop complaining now. Sorry. I didn't mean to whine. I did ask for advice, after all. And hey, I love a challenge! Well, not really, but I'm trying to convince myself. ;-) LOL

Crap. That's what I was afraid you were going to say.

*laughs* Well, that's really first, foremost and always what it's about. Of course, I realize that it's not terribly helpful. How do you get ready for a marathon? Run. How do you lose weight? Eat less. But there's a world of difference between *knowing* that and actually doing it.

If actually sitting down to write is a problem, I can tell you a few things that help me.

Something that I will often do is to assign myself a daily goal. I once wrote a novel (a very bad novel, but we won't go there) by telling myself to write a page a day for a year. A page is very small; of course this was back in the days of writing in longhand in notebooks, so it was literally a page, but on the computer it's about 300 words or so. Before breakfast, after dinner, on your lunch break, whenever you can find a few spare minutes -- work on your daily goal. I've learned over time that it's better to set a small goal that's easy to meet and adds up slowly, rather than a large goal that is hard to meet. Better to tell yourself to write 100 words a day, and always achieve it, than to try to write 1000 and never achieve it. Of course, you can always surpass your goal in a day. But it gives you a place to *stop*, to put it aside and say to yourself, "I'm not thinking about this any more today." The hardest thing about writing a long-ish story is that there's nowhere to stop except the end, so you can't get away from the damn thing. Having goals gives you defined start- and end-points.

I like to listen to music while I write, but to remove other distractions -- turning off the TV, for example, and having my husband and pets somewhere else. This is an ideal state that can't always be achieved. ;-) Still, you might see if you can find what works for you. If you're always getting distracted by the Internet when you're trying to write (and notice what *I'm* doing right now...), then maybe unplugging your network cable while you're writing would help.

Another thing that actually does help me is to have a cup of tea while I'm writing. Like with the daily goals thing, it seems to help me focus. I'll sit and write while I'm drinking this cup of tea and I *won't get up*. On the other hand, eventually the tea runs out and I have to go get more, so then it helps get me away from the computer for a few minutes.

I'm glad science is finding out that tea is good for you, because I drink a lot of it ...

Anyway, I hope that a little of this will help you!

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