Stuff...

[sholio]

I posted an SGA gen Halloween story roundup over at stargategenrec. Seems like the fandom's been a little light on Halloween stories this year, but I'm looking forward to seeing what sga_flashfic's "supernatural" challenge produces.

Speaking of stories, you absolutely MUST read dossier's East of the Sun, West of the Moon. The only other story that's similar to it in SGA fandom that I can think of is "Your Cowboy Days are Over" -- mindblowing, emotionally draining, basically gen, and truly deserving the title of "science fiction novel". Like "Cowboy Days", it's an AU (taking off canon at "Intruder") and is John-centric, although it does wonderful things with the rest of the cast as well. I really cannot recommend it highly enough, and I hope this story gets drowned in comment-love and recs, because it totally deserves it.

And on the topic of novels (note my clever segues!), November is NaNoWriMo and I'm seriously thinking about doing it this year, mostly because one of my major goals for 2007 was to finish a novel, and while I've STARTED quite a few of them, I have yet to actually finish one. (No, fanfic does not count, at least not for this particular goal.) I'd like to blog my progress, but I'm not sure if I want to do it here; I'm dithering with the idea of creating a separate journal just for posting fiction. I've kinda wanted to do that for a while, but right now, I really need another journal like a hole in the head. (In addition to this one, I also have a personal journal and a community that was originally intended for posting creative stuff, but has been languishing because the community interface isn't really right for that sort of thing. Hmm.)

Comments

[dossier.livejournal.com]

Very perceptive, Cowboy Days was a very major influence for me, it made me realize that fan fiction could be so much more, even within its confines. That you've even made the comparison, make me squeal like a 13YO. :)

Nano. I have been thinking about it, I guess that I should go and sign up if I want to make it official. I guess my concern for showing bits of an original novel online is that may count as previously published, if it turns out any good and I want to shop it around. If it turns out weird and cruddy, then I won't have to worry about it, eh?

[sholio]

Glad I could make your day! *g* It really does remind me of it, not because the stories are in any way similar (they're not at all), but because it's the only other thing in this fandom that has a similar reach and scope, at least on the gen side (there are a couple of rightfully well-known slash stories that are similarly ambitious).

I guess my concern for showing bits of an original novel online is that may count as previously published, if it turns out any good and I want to shop it around.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to be posting under friends-lock and reserve the right to lock it down further if it actually turns out to be at all good. *g* I'm hoping that actually posting parts to the Internet will give me an incentive to keep going, since I've been stalling out on all the projects that I've started over the summer.

[dossier.livejournal.com]

Well, you've inspired me, whether or not to insanity, I cannot say, but I have officially joined up for NaNo.

I haven't decided if I'm enough of a performance artist that i could publish under lock and key as I go; I can deal with first drafts, but the perfectionist (albeit a very little one) in me says nyet.

[sholio]

Yeah, the "performance artist" thing ... I know exactly what you mean. I got used to it doing a webcomic for five years, and then writing fanfic WIPs; however, because I tend to jump all over the place when I write (as mentioned elsewhere), the end result is often better if I write it all at once rather than sequentially. However, since I'm having so much trouble sticking to an original project, I'm hoping that this will give me the "kick" that's necessary to keep going.

And I've created a new journal for it: icefallstudio. The story will be posted under lock, and I'm not friending anybody automatically as I don't know who's interested, but you're welcome to go over there and join up if you want to watch me fall on my face and make a fool of myself. *grin*

[dossier.livejournal.com]

LOL I shall go and friend, as I'll want to come back in December and check it out. I suspect I'll be kinda busy in November!

[sholio]

Good point! I imagine we'll all be too busy writing to do much reading. :)

[tipper-green.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Cowboy Days either! Where is that? Man, I am so BEHIND! I started sneaking chapters of East of the Sun at work, but then it got so busy...Life is just such a pain. I liked what I read so far though!

[sholio]

Cowboy Days is here. It's best read without knowing anything about it; I loved the "omigod, omigod" moments as you get the slowly unfolding story of how Sheppard and Teyla came to be where they are in the first scene.

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Nano: You totally should! It'll be fun. *g*

And I doubt that anyone will mind if you post your progress here, if you don't want to go to the trouble of making a new journal.

[sholio]

Well, it's not so much that I think people would mind; I just prefer to keep my fan writing and my original writing kind of separate. I've been wanting to create an original-fiction journal for a while, so this will be a good opportunity to get myself to do that and start writing in it.

[susnn.livejournal.com]

Two of my favorite, individually bookmarked stories. Yes!

Another story that comes to mind is EllieV's "all the good stories" at her lj. http://elliev.livejournal.com/2007/04/15/ It's different.

[sholio]

Hmm! I haven't read that one.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I liked both Cowboy Days and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I think, for me, East of the Sun was a lot easier to read... emotionally, that is. Cowboy Days was like a punch in the gut, in a good way. I admire (and sometimes envy) the places many writers can take the SGA universe.

[sholio]

Yes -- I agree. If "East of the Sun" was a print novel, I'd probably stick it in with my "regularly re-read" pile of books, while "Cowboy Days" would go into the "really fantastic, but probably not going to be emotionally up to reading that one again for a long time" pile. (And yes, I actually do have my bookshelf divvied up that way!)

SGA has one of the most diverse bodies of fanfiction that I've seen in the various fandoms in which I've been. It really runs the whole spectrum, and some of the writers in this fandom are really, truly fantastic. I know I've become a better writer from being in SGA fandom, and I have really never felt that way about a fandom before this one -- I've certainly had fun, but I don't feel as if my previous fanfic really did a whole lot to improve my writing skills.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

"I don't feel as if my previous fanfic really did a whole lot to improve my writing skills."

That's true. Though a lot of people really liked my CSI:NY fics, I was never happy with them, and I could only go so far with them plot-wise (me and crime fandoms, I can never last in them.) Since moving over to the SGA fandom, I've been able to expand - not just plot ideas - but story types, which has helped me better my writing a lot. It also helps that, like you said, SGA has such great writers (there were a lot of good ones in the CSI:NY fandom, but never really any as far as I have seen that wrote on the level of many of the authors here.) Reading helps improve writing skills just as much as writing, and having great authors as examples has helped me tons.