half-real worlds of paper and ink

I posted my ff_exchange fic with four hours to spare! >.>

To clarify, that is actually Not a Good Thing, mostly because of my perfectionist tendencies. I usually reread fics multiple times before posting, often after setting it aside for a couple of days, and this one didn't get the same treatment. I finished writing it around seven hours before the deadline, and spent the rest of the time polishing it and going /o\ at how I keep thinking it's perfectly adequate, but not great. The last month has been somewhat stressful and I've had too many things on my mind (god it's been so, so hard to concentrate on anything) and I've been writing the fic in a rather distracted fashion, not quite knowing what I really wanted to do with it.

Also this is the first fic I've written since last year's exchange (yes, this very same Doink! Final Fantasy Exchange) and I am so out of practice. It's alarming that it's becoming a pattern -- the last three things I wrote were all for Doink! and the only reason I finished those fics is because I committed myself when I signed up and I dislike the thought of defaulting. Perhaps the solution to this is to go join more challenges, but I'm afraid the persistent anxiety of wanting to please the recipient will kill me. I've always been more worried whether or not someone will like what I wrote for them more than anything else when it comes to fic exchanges. Deadlines and word counts don't particularly scare me, even though I've been known to use the latter as an excuse.

But it's done now, and posted, and I'm crossing my fingers hoping that the recipient will like it! Reveals are in less than a week.


Also: Moogle Fluff is open and you can participate even if you didn't sign up for the exchange!


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Anyway. Between posting and riffling through folders with names that were mostly incomprehensible, I found a number of WIPs and ficlets and lines of dialogue from goodness knows when from a few different fandoms. I'm slowly sorting through these and trying to figure out what's worth continuing and finishing, and what should be considered as lost causes. There's one longish FFVIII fic -- more like a collection of scenes, rather -- that's been around for ages; it seems like the problem with it is I don't know whether or not I should break Squall and Rinoa up. (I think it was originally written for a challenge to "subvert your OTP" or some such thing; the notes to it are too vague for me to figure it out now.)

There's a Danny Phantom fic that's too angsty and has no resolution. There's a FFX/FFVIII crossover that's messy and convoluted, but I like the ideas in it even though I don't know which direction it's supposed to go now.

. . . I was quite surprised by some of these. A sort of bemused "I wrote that?" more than anything, especially when I realised that I had laughed while I was reading some of these things, and I wrote those and I have always been so critical of my own writing. I'm not even sure I can write like that any more.

A few things, in no actual order of importance:

• There is a style class being conducted over at style_system; the first session starts here, and the syllabus is here. If you want to learn how to modify or make a layout, that is the place to go. It starts from the very basics, so even without any knowledge of CSS or S2, you'd be able to follow.

I guess I actually already know most of the things listed in the syllabus, but it'd be great to actually properly learn S2 this time around. XD

• There's an April Showers Challenge over at Archive of Our Own, where the challenge is to upload your fanworks. Which reminds me, I still have a few fics I had meant to upload but kept . . . putting off. (I'm not even entirely sure I want my name attached to some of those any more, ahaha. We'll see.) If you don't have an AO3 account, I have an extra invite. PM me your email address and I'll send it your way. :)

• I've been taking the bus to work lately so it's been giving me something like an extra 1.5 hours a day to read. (For some reason I can't seem to fall asleep on the bus despite knowing that it's quite impossible for me to miss my stop.) So I've been reading instead. I'm awfully flighty about reviewing stuff, but my Goodreads profile is here if you're interested. I also try to keep an updated list here in this journal.

What I'm still grappling with right now: Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and I curse the thickness of the book every time I try to stuff it into my bag. Woe. I've been reading it for almost a month (a month!) on and off, and I'm only around two-thirds done with it asfdfljg;flg. A good thing it's interesting. If nothing else it gets an A+ for diagrams annotated in Latin.

• What I should be doing: writing fic for Doink! Final Fantasy Exchange. I haven't started yet! It is far too early to panic, but I am terrified of the tonberry.


Apparently there are only four things! I'm getting worse and worse at this updating thing.

Okay! Three weeks for Dreamwidth starts today -- well, it was yesterday, but my internet connection was acting up and I'm finally posting this after midnight, past my bedtime. Details here: three_weeks_for_dw, but I have no plans! Is there anything in particular I should blather about? (Not that I have been posting much lately, but hey, that could change.) Suggestions? Anyone?

I'll just paste this thing here that I copied over from the latest things "threeweeks" feed:

What kind of topics/entries would you like to see me posting about? Any particular questions you've always wanted to ask me but have resisted because the answer would be a huge essay? Ever want to wind me up and watch me go on a particular topic? Anything you've heard me say "I should write that entry about $foo I've been meaning to write" and have been patiently waiting for?

I'll even write drabbles! Or thoughts on books I've read -- there's a list here. Or post some pictures. I've always wanted to post pictures (but not of myself -- a bit too paranoid for that.)


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FFEX! Posting deadline is less than a month away! Should I start panicking now?

Dear gifter, if you are lurking about, I hope you are having/will be having(/had?) fun with my requests. Nothing in any of those have to be pairings, and I think most of those had additional prompts at the end which are completely optional. Completely. I'm a very easy person to please.

As for the prompts I got, I like them, but I have no idea where to go with them! I can write scenes for them but not a coherent story. I despair when I think about plot.

So.

Fic for FFEX is done. It is posted! It is here: On the Precipice of the World, a FFX fic. (Pretentious title, check.) I'll have it reposted here sometime soon.

Dear recipient, I hope it is satisfactory.

( FFEX stuff. How the heck did it get so long. )


( no work till Tuesday! )
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I've also lost touch with my books, thanks to work and FFEX. Also forgotten about some DW dev stuff I wanted to try, but that's OK, I'll get the hang of things soon.

Har har FFEX. What was I thinking. (Edit: OMG. Look at the cute Squall here. LOOK. I shall work for my accomplishment sticker!)

Prompts are out! Check your email! Read the assignments! Panic! Now I need to set aside time to make sure I get this done! While I think I won't have too much problems completing the assignment (1000 words!), making myself coherent while telling a worthwhile story would probably be quite a task. >.>

I feel like I'm relearning to write fic -- it's been too long since my last attempt.

Whee.


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Apparently my other assignment, this time from my lunch buddies, is to watch True Blood season one. I'm the only one who hasn't watched it, and they keep nagging me about it. Do you hear guys? NAGGING. I wonder if I can nag them into a group reading of a YA novel. Just to be fair, you know? Let everyone share everyone else's interests? :P

I've never been much of a fan of vampires. My experience is limited to one Anne Rice book (was it The Vampire Lestat? I know it wasn't The Interview with the Vampire), some Christopher Pike books (and what was with that ending, sir? It was almost as bad as "and it was all a dream"!), possibly something by Stephen King (The Shining? probably the movie, not the book).

I don't know whether it's hilarious or it's just that I have a one-track mind that when Fazi asked me whether I wanted to watch True Blood my reaction was something like, "that show based on those books by Charlaine Harris?" Haven't read the books, can't say I have any intention to either.

Oh well. As long as no one forces Twilight on me, I'll live. It's amazing, really, the power of the internet -- I haven't even read the books, yet when someone even mentions Edward Cullen I shudder in horror. Not because of the vampire factor, oh no -- it's because people whose tastes I trusts and are similar to mine dislike the book(s) with a passion. (My youngest sister, when asked, said that the book was "stupid". She falls within the target age group of the books. She loves John Green. Of course I trust this succinct review of hers.)

I'll be back with a report on True Blood. A report, I say!


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Other things this weekend:

• finish a sewing project that got halted because I got the measurements wrong (ha ha).


• perhaps poke the stylesheet this journal is using and see if I can make it conform to the guidelines for submission we have here at dreamscapes -- give it a go, guys! It's fully CSS, no S2 involved, I swear!


• uh. There was something I wanted to look at about version control on your local machine but I think I'll just leave that off for now (though suggestions of what programs I should look at are welcome!). It's not just code getting messy anymore; even fic drafts are all over the place.


• finish that Douglas Adams book (currently reading Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency -- I've only got to the part where the detective agency makes an appearance) and maybe start Dunnett's Scales of Gold.


• sleep! And not be a zombie on Monday.

Weekends need to be longer!