OK, I tried to catch up, but it's midnight, and there were 700 posts, so i just said, "Bugger it, I'll hop to the end."
Would someone be wonderful enough to explain the community Teppy set up? Actually, being in here at all is a bit stressful for me, because it's filled with all these people who plan to do something REAL with their writing, who are going to dare the bastions of publishing and give it a shot. I want to try, I really do, but I've got that lovely, clicheish fear thing going for me. The old "If I don't try, I won't fail".
Thing is, I finally know I'm good. I keep thinking, "If you're so all damned good, how come you're not making any money at it? If you want to improve your life, there's your skill. Have at it." And good isn't enough in this day and age. I have precious little energy for grand crusades--and I'll shut the hell up on that now, because if I'm boring myself with this shite, then the rest of you are probably laying on your desks and going, "Oh, please, god, no."
Anyway. Ignore the panic-stricken maunderings above. Tell me about the drabbles.
100 words. This week's challenge is "A Place". No limit on how many 100-worders you can write, at least until there are a million of us and we're doing 50 drabbles each per challenge.
The community on LJ is great_write_way . You can do it.
Just write. Teppy sets the theme for the week every Monday, since she founded the community. 100 words, on that theme.
deb, great news. Congratulations!
connie -- all writing is writing, and I'll be happy to swear on a stack of bibles that it's just as difficult to write good fanfic as it is to write good profic. The differences that I'm pretty sure about are
a) one success marker that profic has (that fanfic doesn't) is $$$ as an indicator
b) profic is more likely to end up in libraries
c) profic is more likely to be accorded respect
d) profic is usually original (except for licensed work-for-hire) and thus the author has copyright/creation privileges.
Writing fanfic doesn't make you a lesser writer (imho) but it does make you a writer who doesn't have access to the privileges of profic.
The differences that I'm pretty sure about are...
Well, and then there's that whole not having to make up original characters thing. (:
There's plenty of fanfic that creates original characters. Just ask Theo, who's practically a legend in X-Men fandom.
There's plenty of fanfic that creates original characters. Just ask Theo, who's practically a legend in X-Men fandom.There's plenty of fanfic that creates original characters. Just ask Theo, who's practically a legend in X-Men fandom.
I'm joking, for the most part. I've written a fair amount of it myself. And no, writing it has nothing to do with writing well or otherwise. Hell, Neil Gaiman's up for a Hugo for what amounts to the same thing. (Sherlock Holmes in the world of H.P. Lovecraft!)
That being said, I've never sat down to write one of these things without the full knowledge that I'm playing with other people's toys, and sometimes that takes a wee bit of pressure off. And adds different sorts of pleasure.
ETA: Huh. Meant to say "adds different sort of pressure," but pleasure works too.
I managed to make a Live Journal entry. (I'm gingerk. I have no imagination for pseudonyms.) Yay, me. I keep thinking that doing a LJ would be another way to keep me writing, although today it would be another way to keep me not writing about energy-efficient patio doors. Now on to this "friend" thing.
Place drabble #2:
They take the ropes down twice a year. Without them, the hands, touching, touching, might wear stone slabs to fragile columns, in a hundred, a thousand, years. Without them, scratched and inked names, dates, love forever, might whittle the supports until the lintels fell, startling the sheep. A touch, a name, might connect you. You might feel the sweat of tattooed men, straining to push the stone upright. Your love might last forever, captured on the rock. They take the ropes down twice a year. You step inside the circle and watch the sun flare between two stones and disappear.
