Weekly Check In Post - Cowley knows best

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

[Poll #1745502]
To help us all along,  and inspired by the F*** Yeah Fanfic Flamingo Tumblr   (NSFW) (thanks draycevixen  and mikes_grrl ) I've created a little meme generator...

Who better to ask for help with your story than the Controller himself - that's 'Mister' Cowley to you and me. *g*    

For example:













Fancy making your own Advice Cowley?  Go here! :D

Comments

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but don't worry, I've already beaten all of my brains out for the other BB rough draft due *this* weekend.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

You know, I totally take my hat off to you attempting two big bang stories at the same time. I'm not sure if you're brave, or crazy. ;)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I'm too crazy to be brave. *g*

My LoM BB rough draft is due by Wednesday, they extended the deadline by a few days. Then the Pros one is due in a month... and the bowl of mush that passes for my brain is eyeing a third Big Bang in a fandom I'm not even active in. Yes, certifiable.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

Uh, yep, definitely time to call the men in white coats! You must really thrive under insane pressure.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I don't really, I just like to take part in stuff. I'm a fandom pokey stick wielder so I think if I don't take part myself it might be a tad hypocritical. Well, that explains the LoM and Pros BBs. The third one is just about a fandom where hardly anything gets written for my favourite pairing.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. If you're going to wield the pokey stick, you should step up to the crease yourself and have a bat. *nods*

Sometimes, you just gotta write the story you want to read yourself. I write a pairing in my other fandom that no one else seems to write long stories for, so if I want a long story with them in it, I have to do it myself!

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I get the theory, I really do, but I don't feel as motivated to write when I have nothing in turn to read. I know my own plot twists, so no surprise and even the sexeh times are no fun when I've written them. It's a fandom where the Het ship is HUGE and my guys are secondary characters.

So, I'm dead impressed that you persist in writing what you want to read, that's fantastic.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not as much fun if you know everything that's going to happen, and I always think my sex scenes are horrendously boring. It's definitely a bummer when your pairing doesn't get much love.

I suppose, in a way, it's rather... I dunno, maybe narcissistic? of me. I will go back, months after I've finished writing and posting the story and read my own work just for enjoyment.

I started writing back in 2005 and I think that sort of burst the dam. I would keep on writing now even if no one other than myself and my beta were reading my stories. I need to write.

But having said all that... I do get annoyed sometimes that there's nothing new to read!

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I hardly ever re-read my own work but I don't think I'd call it narcissistic at all to do so and enjoy it. For it to be narcissism I'm pretty sure you'd have to re-read your own work and never read anything written by anyone else. *g*

I'm compelled to write, writer's block is like physical pain, but I started writing fan fiction in large part to communicate, if you will, with other fans.

I've certainly written my fair share of stuff with little or no readership, particularly for fic challenges where I invite my mates to throw anything at my head they think I might know(Sapphire & Steel/Blake's 7, Steel/Avon anyone?)but where I've written multiple stories I've been part of a group of writers.

I run a small fic challenge. I get something new to read most weeks. :D

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

LOL @ your icon

Yeah, narcissistic was the wrong word, but my brain wasn't supplying the right word! *g* I have several favourite authors whose work I pounce on the minute it appears.

I'm absolutely miserable when I have writer's block. I've always wanted to write and writing fan fiction was the first step along the way because it allowed me to tell my stories without necessarily having to be too concerned about the conventions of writing (such as no head hopping! *g*). I've since had a few stories published but I still love writing fan fiction because you get feedback from your readers and if you do a bit of head hopping, no one is going to jump all over you and tell you to rewrite it! *g* I enjoy being part of a fandom too. I'm a quiet, somewhat solitary sort of person in RL, so fandom allows my alter-ego out to play. ;)

It's fun to have friends throw obscure and weird challenges at you sometimes, isn't it? I think it stretches you as a writer if you 'have to' write a pairing you don't normally do.

Lucky you! I read too fast so I'm pretty much always scratching for something new to read. I have three books I recently purchased that I'm saving for when I'm absolutely desperate (and after I get Bodie and Doyle out of the woods in my big bang story).

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

That's one of the few icons I made myself. :D

I sometimes find myself looking around a crowded place, like a mall, airport or the student centre on campus and wondering how many of the tribe of fandom are just lurking about.

There's a reason why I call my flist my FIEND list. I've written, essentially, in three fandoms and yet I have 26 of them listed on my AO3 site because of the stuff they've thrown at me/crossovers they've had me write. Yes, I blame them. *halo*

So... did Bodie and Doyle just move wholesale in to the wood and no one told me? Typical. *g*

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

It's a great icon!

I've often wondered that too when I'm out and about.

LOL Good name for them. It's always good to have someone else to blame, particularly when observers might wonder at the sanity of the writer. ;)

*g* Yes, the wood is the place to be this year. It's the best place to be for mild hypothermia and encounters with stoats. ;)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Particularly when observers might wonder at the sanity of the writer. That ship has sailed. *g*

Good to know. So last year was the year of the Bodie whump and this is the year of Bodie and Doyle get wood... Erm... Go in to the woods, yes.

Anybody who writes that stoat story is going to get one hell of an illustrator. :D

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

LOL

I missed the boat on the Bodie whumping last year... it's his turn this year for me. Don't the lads get wood every year? *blinks innocently*

*g* Well, if it counts at all, I currently have Bodie conversing with a stoat. ;)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, they like a good fire as much as the next person. You know, rub two bits of wood together and see what happens, sparks!

Tog will be thrilled. It'll distract her from the flaming broccoli. *nods*

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yes. *gets distracted by bits of wood rubbing together* They have very nice woody bits... bits of wood. Could start a four alarm blaze if they're not careful!

There's flaming broccoli? Quick, get the cheese sauce!

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

It's why I shove them in the shower or bath every chance I get... you know, to prevent dangerous conflagrations. *whistles*

Tog takes issue with the fact the Irish are always the first to go in SciFi and suggested fighting the aliens with flaming cows launched from trebuchets. As she's a vegetarian, I suggested flaming broccoli might be better. She said it's difficult to get broccoli to burn so I said not if you coat it in Napalm. She then declared that's why the English had an empire... On second thoughts, perhaps you had to be there. *g* Obviously cheese sauce would be the aliens secret weapon and I should warn you that if you're in league with them there's a scary Irish woman with a trebuchet that she's not afraid to use.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

Good idea to get them wet, with or without clothes. Wouldn't want them spontaneously combusting, a la the drummer in Spinal Tap. *nods* And wet clothes do tend to cling rather... *ahem* Yes, well, wet clothes can be uncomfortable, so they'd best take them off. *nods*

ROTFL! Oh no, I wouldn't side with the aliens... unless they're cute. The cheese sauce will be the first line of defence should they attempt to lob the flaming broccoli back. They won't have the makings for cheese sauce as they have no cows. *nods* (that makes sense in my head)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, unless they cunningly bred the somewhat singed cows Tog had already lobbed at them. *strokes chin in thoughtful fashion*

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

Ah, but then the cheese sauce would be burned/singed too, because singed cows would produce singed milk... it's got a follow on effect, you know. And you know what happens when you burn the cheese sauce.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

And you know what happens when you burn the cheese sauce.

You claim it's nouveau cuisine and charge extra money for it?

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

LOL That, AND it clumps nastily and doesn't cover well at all! (or maybe that's just because I'm rather inept in the kitchen *g*)

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

I suppose it depends on what you're trying to coat in cheese sauce.