*Dons beret and heads to the garret*

[laliandra]

So, let's talk writing...

I signed up for yuletide . \o/ It's after Bonfire Night, we can talk about Christmassy things now, right?

For those who don't know, yuletide is a fic exchange, but for small fandoms. Which I like the idea of, because some of my very favourite fandoms are, well, bijou? Cosy? Anyway, I have offered myself to write all manner of exciting things and if it all goes horribly wrong I shall be blaming novembersmith who, in the grandest traditions of the marmfish, will probably blame me...

Anyone else doing yuletide this year? Or any other kind of fic exchange? Any tips for a total newbie? I am super excited about it. I want my prompt now!

So, I am really going to have to try to finish That Damn Steampunk AU. Currently I am stalled a little, and mildly concerned that it is slightly chatchatflirtporridgechatEPICAIRSHIPBATTLEchat. Oh well. Could be worse.

It also has no name, and I can't call it SPAU for all time. It's a little like SPEW, for a start! Um, help?

It does have a kick awesome summery, though, if I say so myself. "In which Captain Kristopher loves his airship but needs a hobby and Prince Adam is unbalancing. Featuring sky pirates, political machinations, unexpected weaponry and Much Ado About Cogs"

And finally, NaNoWriMo people, how goes it? I am so proud of you all, and expect great things! I will be over here cheerleading like crazy.

Like this *\o/*

<3 Lal

ps. all y'all who had thoughts about blogging, I am in awe of your depth of thought. My flist wins at life.

Comments

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

I can't call it SPAU for all time. It's a little like SPEW, for a start!

The Society for the Protection of Alternate Universes?


Yay, I like to win at life. :) I was going to write a reply to the other post but got eaten by pharmacology notes.

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

ALSO where did you get a picture of Tamsin Greig looking confused with puppets? Where's that from?

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Steam Punk Alternate Universe. But I like your idea too!

:D

That picture is part of my very awesome Black Books Mood Theme. I often get distracted by the delightful stills of Tamsin and Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey...

[jorajo.livejournal.com]

I restarted my NaNo mid-week and only have a few hundred words. I plan on knocking out a lot of it this weekend. Instead of working on a paper for class. heh

Also, it's after Halloween, so I am free to listen to the Nutcracker and daydream about seeing it in December without a hint of guilt. *twirls*

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan! Meh, papers.

Christmas songs will get me through the dull morass that is November. Blugh. And The Nutcracker, yay! It was the first ballet that I ever saw, it's so magical and amazing...

[altogetherisi.livejournal.com]

LAL I have not spoken to you for AGES, how goes your life? I am scared of fic exchanges, and deadlines generally, so good luck with that. I guess TDL might qualify as a small fandom actually, hadn't thought of that... And, would you be up for a possible, at this point only hypothetical, marmfish meetup at some point over the approaching holidays?

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

ISI my laptop refuses to run chatzy which is a source of constant heartbreak for me, I can tell you.

I remain woefully unemployed and unsure of exactly what I want to do, but I at least have plenty of time for writing :D?.

This is my very first, and I felt that the deadline would be good for me. It only has to be a thousand words, so that is not so bad. And TDL is on the list of possible yuletide fandoms, so I would expect some fic from it!

YESYESYES I would totally be up for that. I would have to see about my general state of finances and such, but, yes!

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

BEST SUMMARY EVER. (Also, Kristopher with a K? YUSS.) As for title suggestions... I usually choose titles from quotes, personally, whether the reader is aware of where they come from or not. Would you like a Really Long And Not Exactly Related Example of this? Well, my pirate airship story thing was Untitled for some time, and then got the title of All The King's Men, because "The King's Men" was going to be the nickname for Captain Dumont's crew... only then my friend helpfully pointed out that some famous book I'd never heard of had the same title and had been made into a movie and everything, so I had to ditch that. But then I was reading the Aeneid, and, since we all know how much I love the Aeneid, it is no surprise that I opened to Book VI, describing Aeneas' journey down into the Underworld, only to see the perfect title staring right at me, ie. THE WORLD BELOW. (How awesome is that? I mean, and it works on so many levels, I can't even stand it.) So yeah - my only title advice tends to be, look out for random phrases in songs, books, things people say - something that strikes you, catches your interest, and describes your story in a totally awesome way. I would try to give more specific suggestions, but... well, short summaries are not actually that helpful as far as title-advice-giving goes.

(Much Ado About Cogs would be a pretty good temporary title, though, I feel, if you at least want to stop calling it SPAU.)

Yuletide sounds awesome! Good luck! I am now tempted to sign up as well, but then I remind myself that I'm supposed to be keeping all my Christmas presents this year to $5 or less, which means a LOT of drawing and writing and making things by hand to come up with suitable gifts for people. And I really don't need one MORE thing to try and plow through before Christmas.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

YAY! He is Kristpher with a K because this started out as fanfic for a fandom that I am referring to as my summer fling fandom and kind of... morphed? Into this bigger thing that I have had to use post-its stuck along my bookshelf to plan out. Man, plot.

The World Below is an absolutely AMAZING name. I cannot wait to read it. I love titles that have layers of meaning! They are my very favourite sort (like The Demon's Lexicon!) I am trying to think of something to do with skies. And heh, Much Ado About Cogs is what I told my beta I would name it if me and her and everyone failed to come up with a title. Great minds!

The sign ups are closed now, so the temptation should be removed... And I know, I was planning on story gifts for people, but I figure that it is only 1000 words, so it is like having an extra friend to write for? Or something? IDEK, I may well regret it come December! My friend completely talked me into it...

:)

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

God, The World Below needs some plot, I admire you for having one, post-its and all. It is pretty much sketched out until around halfway, at which point my brain just goes, ... I gave you attractive young men snogging, what else do you want from me?, and it's a problem. I mean, I feel like I have reached the climax without actually reaching the climax, if you understand what I mean, and this is not a good thing at all. So yeah - you are lucky and I cannot wait to read your story either (assuming you ever let it see the light of day beyond the eyes of your beta), especially since it will obviously be done long before mine.

Only a thousand words? Well, I suppose that's not that bad then, although admittedly the only fanfic I have ever written is still limited to Havemercy drabbles, so perhaps I should not take that so lightly. (Fanfic is much harder for me than my own fiction, since I never seem to come up with actual stories, just random momentary portraits, which drabbles are admittedly quite useful for.)

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Plot is a KILLER. I have moments, but they need ordering and linking and stuff and that stuff is HARD. Aha, I like your brain. My brain says things like "look, I can carry on with this banter ALL NIGHT. What more do you want from me?" and I say things like "Plot? Description? People to actually have a serious conversation or shoot something? STOP BANTERING PEOPLE YOUR LIVES ARE IN DANGER."

I highly recommend the post-it system. Worked a treat for me. And it's going to see the light of day, because otherwise my beta will actually kill. I mean, she lives in America, but she would find a way...

Your portraits are lovely, and I agree about drabbles being a very different kettle of fish. Blugh. PLOT.

[miabee023.livejournal.com]

Really? I don't like my brain at all, it is tremendously useless. I could actually do with some banter skills myself - it is incredibly hard for me to write dialogue for this story for some reason, I just get really descriptive for pages on end, trying to convey the depths of their hidden passion or something. (Which is odd, because the previous story-type thing I wrote about was pretty much ALL dialogue, because I could never come up with decent descriptions for anything. Ah, those were the days.)

Actually, your post-it idea sounds useful, and so tonight while I was sitting at a table doing nothing for four hours I went through my story notebook, writing down things that were particularly symbolic/thought-provoking/thematic, and tomorrow I will be setting them out in a massive post-it note web on my wall and trying to wiggle a plot out of them that way. Fingers crossed!

And, of course, thank you! Drabbles are... relaxing. (At least, so long as you are not trying to come up with a Rook voice sans your copy of Havemercy.)

[khasael.livejournal.com]

I am woefully behind on the NaNo (I have a grand total of zero words!), but I am not worried! I've been averaging 3-4k words a day on what I *have* been writing, so if I keep up that pace and start sometime this weekend, I'll be fine. I had to leave what I was writing up to my flist to decide, via poll, though.

The ChatFish have heard me go on (at great length) about why I have nothing done for NaNo so far. There is an HP (H/D) fic that is eating my life, insisting that it MUST be written, and NOW. I only intended it to be 2-5,000 words. Currently, I am sitting at *just* shy of 15,000. And still going (though relatively close to the end). Oops. I could definitely use a cheerleader. Especially a cute one like that :)

I've never done a fic exchange, but they sound wonderful! Perhaps sometime in the future...

I totally want to read that AU. It sounds made of awesome. Wonderful summary.

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I SAW that you were writing H/D, I did mean to comment but have been so bad at that lately. Tutut, self. Anyway, this makes me very happy to hear. Good luck with it!

And also your NaNoWriMo. I don't think I could ever do anything like that, and so, like I said, I'm just in awe. *\0/*

Heh, it is sort of fanfic for *hides face* American Idol, my summer fling fandom, but sort of not? IDEK, but thank you, I am fond of it myself. By the end of November, is the current plan. I feel your pain, it too was only meant to be maybe a couple of thousand words and is now about 19,000 with a fair few left to go...

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

YAY FOR YULETART! I hope you get a nice recipient and a fun fandom to write in~~ Am only doing two fests this hol season, both art-related... though okay the SPN one is also for fic, but yeah. And I am doing yuletart as I do every year, and OH MAN THIS YEAR I GOT SOMEONE REALLY GOOD AS MY RECIPIENT AHHH NERVOUSNESSSS HELLO

...and dude-- THAT SPAU SUMMARY IS THE BEST THING EVER. If I had never read anything about it before save that one summary, you betcha that I would be clicking the reading link ASAP :DD

EEE LOOKING FORWARD TO SKYPING WITH YOU SOON. OR NOW. DEPENDING DUN DUN DUNNNN

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

KRIS YOUR FACE IS JUST TOO ADORABLE OKAY I CANNOT COPE WITH YOU SERIOUSLY.

Anyway! Yay for exchanges! We are going to rock this yule y/y? Your ideas sound so fabulous I cannot wait to see them! I know a good deal about both mythology and pie. JS.

:D:D:D I am so pleased because the summary is going to be pretty much the only thing that will make people click on the link, let's face it. There are about a billion super awesome famous writers in idol fandom for me to compete with!

SKYPING WAS AWESOME AND WE HAD BETTER DO IT AGAIN ASAP.

&hearts &hearts

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

Also, http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?onjnqhofntd is the link to the LLWD vid. His faaaaaaace.

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD LAL TY TY TY I HAVE CLICKED AND IT IS TAKING A LOT OF MY SELF CONTROL NOT TO IMMEDIATELY WATCH THIS AND NOT SAVE IT AS A REWARD WHEN I REGAIN CONSCIOUSNESS TOMORROW MORNING.


or wait fuck this shit, Imma go watch it now....



AHHHHHHHHHH. Dude!! I actually found myself making inadvertant squeaking noises because I was that intensely CHARMED. The way he is rocking out on that acoustic geeeeeeetar and the piano! How he keeps bopping and wiggling around on the bench! The quite frankly very flattering colors and lighting they have going there for the nightime/dawnish setting! The way his voices sings that "LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE like we're dying" part!

and lol, tru fax, it took me like til half of the vid to notice that the weird blinky lights were a GIANT CLOCK durr durr durrrrr XDD

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

NO PROBLEMO BB.

I KNOOOOOOOOOW. I ACTUALLY GENUINELY LOVE THIS SONG, WHICH WAS UNEXPECTED. I LOVE HOW IT IS A TINY BIT R'N'B IN THE VERSES. I LOVE HIS VOICE.

But then I was all worried that the video was going to be HORRIBLE. BB is not a good actor, in general. We know this. And personally find his lack of poker face to be kinda hot. But anyway, then there was THIS THING OF BEAUTY AND DELIGHT.

lol, his piano humping ways are legend. It is super adorable. Have you seen the chibli versions?

Ok, more amusing things, someone on ontdai thought it said Every second counts on a CLOCK GLASS CHICKEN.

It also REALLY sounds like he's saying "Tell him that we love him."

JS.

:D:D:D:D

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

DUDE thinking of Kris' lack of pokerface suddenly brings to mind ideas of scenarios where due to ~magic plot device X~ or ~sex pollen~ or ~ST-esque MIRRORVERSE-NESS~, Kris actually becomes all suave and/or inscrutable, collected and hot and manages to unnerve Adam and all the other AI peeps whilst making them find it utterly hot at the same time or something.

I THINK I HAAAAAAAVE seen those. Yes, I bet I happened over them in one of my random AI goods trawling sessions lol XD

..............CLOCK GLASS CHICKEN?? Wow. That would've been some ~profound~ lyric ahahaskfjklj now I am imagining them constructing a giant one for the purposes of the video. :DD That would've been something!!

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

DUDE THAT IS A SMOKIN' HOT SCENARIO.

WIN.

I feel we need to talk about something and that something is KRIS ALLEN'S FREAKING ALBUM.

OH. MY. GOD.

Would you like links?

<3

[kaiserkuchen.livejournal.com]

IKNORITE?? Sometimes my mind surprises me (reasons why I can never become a fic writer: I tend towards immediate gratification re: scenarios-- I love to read anything with delicious build-up, but actually imagining my way through it myself doesn't work that well lolol)


..... I WOULD NEVER EVER SAY NO TO LINKS ♥

And I am actually about to hit the sack, but I will most def dl and take a listen first thing in the morning and then we can see about a skype session sometime in the evening/when you have time? I WANT TO KNOW MORE SAT PARTY DEETS ANYWAYS. Or just have you describe the food there to be in extensive detail lolol

[laliandra.livejournal.com]

I love how poppy Kris's shirt is in all of your icons. Anyway! This is why you go prompt other people. You are like a MUSE or something. Maybe that is your artist brain talking.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/o19hnr

is what you need. Though it will put it out of order, I think.

I am freeee as a bird from now on, whenever you would like to chat :D