sophinisba | writing, remixing, social networking, reading

I've really been enjoying the drabbling I've been doing for

writing_game this week. I think their rules work better for me than

fanfic100 and similar comms because there is a structure and an order (which keeps it from being, like, "Do whatever you want," which would lead to me not doing anything) but they allow you to switch fandoms periodically, which means I don't get sick of what I'm doing and it helps me get remixable in more fandoms quickly – not that I've ever seen anyone offer to write Children of Men at a remix. :) I get a nice feeling of accomplishment from getting points and moving through the game, which I think helps keep me from getting anxious the way I usually do about whether they'll get comments.

remixthedrabble is going well, I think! A few people have already sent in their submissions and I've seen on a few people's journals that they're making progress. So far I've written two out of the three drabbles I signed up to write and I have an idea of what to do for the third. I have been a strict mod and sent back a 96-word submission as unacceptable! (Google Docs apparently has a wonkier word counter than Microsoft Word.) So far it's been fun. I suppose the stress will come right at the end when a ton of submissions are coming in at once and we find out how many defaulted. But I put in a few days' leeway before we need to start posting, and of course this is a pretty easy thing for a pinch-hitter to do quickly.

I did an f-list trim this morning. I'd never really done that before! I mean, I'd occasionally cut one or two people before but this was actually going through and like, tidying up, noticing the people who'd unfriended me without my noticing, and a couple people who've stopped posting or whom I haven't communicated with in years. I unjoined some communities. It felt kind of nice, to tell the truth. (But if you think I've made a horrible mistake by cutting you, do send me an e-mail and we'll talk.) I've also friended a few new people recently. *waves*

I've been trying to figure out what to do with my Dreamwidth account. I think I want to import my LJ there before I start crossposting, and I want to wait until the mass screening of imported OpenID comments thing is available before I import. Also, I want to wait until they offer some journal layouts I like or make customizing layouts really easy before I start using it a lot. For now though I've got a reading list and I read it most days. Maybe when I start crossposting from Dreamwidth I will quit crossposting to InsaneJournal.

I also have a Twitter account. I don't really "get" Twitter but I've been trying to use it more, so, you know, if you're very curious about what TV I'm watching any particular evening or whatever, there's that.

Another thing I use inconsistently is Delicious. For a little while there I was being sort of conscientious about bookmarking the awesome Merlin fics I was reading, but then I got lazy and now it don't usually think of it. If anyone would like to explain to me what a Delicious network is for and how to use it I would appreciate that. Maybe if I can think of it as a social thing I'll remember to do it more often.

I've fallen behind both with reading and reviewing for

50books_poc! I'm up to 18 books now which is almost on track for doing 50 in the calender year, but I've only finished one book so far this month and I haven't reviewed that or the four I read in April. :( Anyway, Jackie Kay is awesome -- I just finished a book of her short stories called Wish I Was Here and I loved it, though not as much as her novel Trumpet, which I read in March. Am close to finishing The Golden Road, a memoir by Caille Milner, which is pretty good although not as good as I thought it would be when I was on the first chapter. I'm only a little way into Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father which is seriously great. I mean, I had heard it was well written and insightful and everything and we all know he's a smart man, but the writing is seriously beautiful and I'm enjoying it so much.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

*waves back*

Hiya new friend =)

Glad

writing_game's working well for you. I started the comm to force myself to write, esp. on days that I can barely string 50 words together, haha.

I get a nice feeling of accomplishment from getting points and moving through the game, which I think helps keep me from getting anxious the way I usually do about whether they'll get comments.

It's amazing how motivating invisible points* from the Internet are!

We used to be better at commenting on one another's drabbles (that was when the mods were more active), but since the active members of the comm. are mainly writers instead of readers/lurkers, for the most part we just post the drabbles minus any comments nowadays. We've also slowly become more and more multifandom over the years, which means I'm only familiar with 5-10% of the fandoms.

(No, never heard of Children of Men either.)

* From time to time, I'll add "Bonus points if you include XYZ character" to drabble prompts on my comm.s, and people obey even though the points are entirely hypothetical (We don't have House teams or anything). *feels the rush of mod power*

P.S. Streamlining friend/reading list is therapeutic, yes =D (When you're not doing it because you can't stand the other person, that is.)

P.P.S. I'm not as OCD about my comments 90% of the time. Promise.

Hey there! Thank you for your comm!

I started the comm to force myself to write, esp. on days that I can barely string 50 words together, haha.

I totally get that. I'm pretty sure I checked out the comm last year some time when I was in touch with

benebu first for

remixthedrabble and then because she was translating one of my fics, and I didn't join at the time because I thought I needed more interaction than I saw happening there. I used to get all the drabble prompts I wanted by asking my f-list for them, but these days I don't usually write in the fandoms most of my friends are interested in so I'll do a post asking for prompts and get two responses and then started thinking gloomy thoughts about no one wanting to read me and it's worse than if I'd just gone and picked a prompt out of the dictionary! So yeah, the imaginary prompts are doing a great job.

Children of Men is an awesome movie by Alfonso Cuarón (who also directed Prisoner of Azkaban) loosely based on a novel by P.D. James. It takes place in 2027 when no one has had a baby in 18 years and the world is falling apart. It's very dark and intense and has an action sequence that goes on for like 8 minutes on a single take, but mostly I like it because of how deeply felt it is (like there's this one scene where Clive Owen hides behind a tree and cries that totally kills me).

I wrote it for Yuletide in 2007 and hadn't given a lot of thought to writing it again, but then I landed on the Epiphany prompt twice and wanted to do something different with it the second time, so I tried to think of a fandom where blatant Christian symbolism would be appropriate and that's what I came up with. :)

So speaking of landing on the same square twice, I was wondering how that works with the new board and the squares with multiple prompts. Like, if I land on C, does that mean I can use crayon and Creole and get three points, or do I choose one and that way if I come back to the same square I have a different prompt to work with?

it's worse than if I'd just gone and picked a prompt out of the dictionary!

X-D
One of these days I should do a "Open your dictionary to p. 234, your prompt is the 5th word from the top."

I'll have to put Children of Men on my Netflix queue =D

I've always been intrigued with Yuletide, but I'm not comfortable enough with my fanfic-writing to write outside of HP, Merlin and GO.

I'm one of those people that:
a) need to know the canon reasonably well
b) need to like the canon but not _love_ the canon (So Narnia, LotR, House M.D., Diana Wynne Jones & Megan Whalen Turner = no to fanfic-writing)

if I land on C, does that mean I can use crayon and Creole and get three points, or do I choose one and that way if I come back to the same square I have a different prompt to work with?

The second one =) You can do the same prompt over and over too, if you wish.

need to like the canon but not _love_ the canon

Ah, that's interesting! I've run into something similar before where people say Tolkien's already so complete or so perfect that they just don't see any room to mess around in. House is one of my favorite shows but so far I haven't had any ideas for anything to write, but I'm never sure whether it's because I love it too much or not enough or just because I'm not confident in my ability to make up medical stuffs. :) It's one of those fandoms where I figure I can handle it for

remixthedrabble but that's about it.

Yuletide has been one of my happiest fandom experiences, both the years I've done it. The sign-up is a little intimidating but the way I've dealt with it is to offer mostly movie fandoms (Children of Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan's Labyrinth, Saved!...) so I'm familiar already and I know it'll be easy to review the canon. On the other hand I talked to someone last winter who said she'd mostly just signed up for books because she finds those a lot easier to review then than movies. So, you know, it takes all kinds. :)

Well I do treat book!Narnia as sort of sacred, but I go around that by thinking it's movie!Narnia instead ^^;; (When reading fanfic, that is)

House is one of my favorite shows but so far I haven't had any ideas for anything to write, but I'm never sure whether it's because I love it too much or not enough or just because I'm not confident in my ability to make up medical stuffs. :)

For me it's both =3

the way I've dealt with it is to offer mostly movie fandoms (Children of Men, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan's Labyrinth, Saved!...) so I'm familiar already and I know it'll be easy to review the canon

Hmm, true. Esp. if you watch it with subtitles on DVD.

Beyond Le Petit Prince/Little Prince (which I've literally read over 100 times) and Howl's Moving Castle, I'm not that confident in writing bookverse (because most of them don't have handy wikis like HP Lexicon =P)
Also, what if I put down "Diana Wynne Jones," and instead of Howl or Chrestomanci, the person likes Fire and Hemlock? Despair!

I don't know those books, but on Yuletide sign-ups you can specify which characters you're willing to write. They're more accommodating on that than, say,

remixthedrabble. :) The lack of wikis for the fandoms does make it more challenging though, I definitely noticed that my first year especially.

Hee, that's such a cute icon <3

Mmm, maybe I'll sign up this year then. I'm definitely not doing HP this Xmas (OMGtoomanyfests). And unless Merlin has a drabble/shortfic exchange, as of now I'm not interested in a fic exchange.

Two people on my f-list regularly sign up for Yuletide, but they're so ridiculously multifandom but I never considered it for myself =P

they're so ridiculously multifandom that* I never considered it for myself

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