nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
Real life crashes into the best intentions of more regular posting. But before January is quite out, another challenge post.

Challenge #12
In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I don't do resolutions, other than the years I did the easy "spend more money on having fun". Looking at the challenge DW, I saw this meme about writing goals done by [personal profile] commoncomitatus, and it looked fun to give a go.

This got quite long... )
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
You have the perfect line to conclude the scene and then the phone rings, you get distracted, don't write it down, and then by the time you come to write again, it's gone never to recovered. It probably wasn't perfect, but it was certainly a lot better than anything else I've thought of so far.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
That experience when writing fic when you have very, very nearly finished and yet it does need something to finish it off and it refuses to come. Unfortunately, while I had a breakthrough as an undergraduate when I realised that the reason I found the 'conclusion' but of my essay outline so difficult to implement was that I'd already written the conclusion in the penultimate paragraph so could just stop, the same doesn't apply here. I think it's time for that ever-useful solution, put it away until tomorrow.

In other news, Housman was wrong about the loveliest of trees. It isn't the blosssoming cherry, lovely as they are, but apples.

Photos )
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
I spent a little time at the weekend going through a couple of folders of art from my teenage years, mostly 13 - 16 GCSE, and then up to about 20. I trailed off painting in my early/mid twenties, presumably picking up other things instead (including writing), and have restarted in the last year after not really doing anything other than the odd little drawing in years.

It was a fun bit of nostalgia on many fronts, but one thing that was interesting about it was that while it had all the faults that I had in later years remembered, it was also much better in some respects than I'd any idea. Yes, the subjects could be repetitive (multiple mournful looking teenage vampire girls, multiple mountains), it could be stiff, and above all it lacked a certain flair that is necessary to really raise art to a higher level, but technically some of it was really decent for teenager with very little technical education. The drawing skills in particular were far better than I was really aware, there are some very nice still lifes, and it was interesting watching my progression in handling watercolours. By the end I could actually do some really decent trees and had a nice handle on skin. Clearly if I had continued I should have been a great proficient!

The flaws are still there to be learned from, but so are the good parts, and of course a lot more experience in looking at the world around me, looking at art, and having more experience in specifically working to improve it. Writing may require a very different skill set in some ways, but its encouraged me to think about what I'm doing in an active way that feels very transferable, and to tackle things that I find difficult and to try and find that elusive flair.

This is all starting to sound like a motivational toilet poster, but on the other hand one of the lessons of my teenage art is that something shouldn't be apologetic about itself, so I shall continue anyway. In short, self-criticism is a worthwhile exercise when seeking improvement, but this was definitely a reminder that proper self-criticism should include recognition of the good parts and how you got there and using that. I had a lot of fun painting that jaguar as a fourteen year old, but and that's actually probably why I still think it is pretty good for a fourteen year old, because I was having a lot of fun and letting myself be free with it and learn.

(And now wash your hands and flush the loo.)
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
NOT ONLY did I at lunchtime suddenly realise completely out of the blue that by a small addition to an existing* scene I could solve a plot hole in the giant Wimsey/Potterverse crossover that I've been writing at glacial speed for ages.

BUT LATER when I went for a walk after work, I suddenly realised that in another existing** scene, I could add a bit and resolve a different plothole and wrote 700 words. Can you tell I did not plot out the mystery element of this story sufficiently in advance? I know what I'm doing this weekend! The iron is hot, it must be struck. Of course, then I'll stop for months again but hey, jerky forwards motion is still forwards motion. The damn thing will be finished yet. If I could just think of a title...

*Existing in the plan, not one I have written in full yet.

**As above.
nineveh_uk: Picture of ring with serpent, and text "The crux of the matter" (Harry Potter icon)
I knew when I wrote the first draft of the Great Wimsey/Potterverse Crossover Fic (with werewolves) that I was storing up trouble for myself by not bothering to put in specific dates even though as a story in which elements of the plot hinge on werewolves, I needed the various full moons to be 28 days apart. I told myself that I could always shove in a few "Several days later" as required to make things add up when I got round to revising those parts.

And so I can. It's just that I also forgot about Easter, which is quite significant when part of the story in which said full moons are taking place is in March and April, and while Peter Wimsey's Christianity is largely of the cultural variety, he is extremely observant in the noticing things sort of way and could scarcely miss that he was in a church for an Easter service or a Good Friday vigil, and life being what it is someone in fandom would be sure to spot an error. It is really quite tempting to invent something like the 1928 Easter Act actually coming into being in the Wizarding World in 1842. I have at least managed to name my villages after saints who have their saints days at times of year outwith this element of the plot.

The moral of the story: it is quicker and easier to do the hard work the first time round.

ETA: In other fic research news, Napolean's family have some amazing names. I've got to fit a Zénaïde in somewhere.
nineveh_uk: Screenshot of Eowyn, holding a sword, (Eowyn)
Realising that you have been inconsistent in your use of the second person pronoun in an annoying way.

Also, what on earth am I going to call it? Tennyson would work, but is unsuitable. Suspect I shall fall back on some sort of 'extract from the Tale of Years' theme. Of the need for a summary, I shall not speak.
nineveh_uk: Cover illustration for "Strong Poison" in pulp fiction style with vampish Harriet. (Strong Poison)
Thanks to [personal profile] naraht. It's massively skewed by the right fic at the right time in Yuri on Ice fandom, but has been interesting to discover the stats page, which I can't remember looking at before.

Account created: 21 December 2009, presumably Yuletide connected.
Total stories: 45 There is quite a lot I never transferred from FictionAlley* or LJ/DW. Must think about archiving the latter. The former is about to become not an issue because AO3 is transferring the entire archive. Though I must also think about that, too..
Total wordcount: 99,169
Average (mean) wordcount: 2203. This over-inflates the average, really. I seem to have a lot of quite short fics on AO3.
Longest story: My True Love Has My Heart. Peter/Harriet bodyswap fic... It's 12,200 words. By and large I don't write very long fics, and that's the only one over 10,000.
Shortest story: And the flood destroyed them all 152 words, These Old Shades, and the sole fic on AO3 tagged with Henri de Saint-Vire

Total kudos: 4786
Kudos (mean) per story: 106. Take out the fic with most kudos, and you get a less extreme 64.
Story with most kudos: In the Studio, which was a comic, multi-chapter fic right at the time when Yuri on Ice fic was still canon-focused and there wasn't as much of it. Its 1935 kudos is over seven times my next most-kudosed fic (also YOI). It has 1 kudos per 1.8 words, which is particularly ridiculous when you consider that it is written in script form and thus a disproportionate number of those words are "Commentator [1]".

Total comment threads: 569.
Comment threads per story: 12. Hmm, probably not unreflective overall.
Story with most comments: The aforementioned : In the Studio, with 138 comment threads. Honourable mention to The Sceptre at the Feast, which comes in second with 49 comment threads, and is a Yuletide 2009 fic that still brings in more kudos and occasional comments than I would expect for such a short piece.

Total author subscriptions: 54.
Total story subscriptions: 217. I assume many of them are awaiting the sequel to In the Studio,
Story with most subscriptions: Indeed, it's In the Studio, with 209 subscriptions.
Total bookmarks: 450
Story with most bookmarks: Go on, guess! You won't be wrong.

Stories with no comments or kudos: Two stories with no comments: Sabotage , which is a Yuri on Ice jeu d'esprit about what skaters really think when they get sex-pollened, and I've Been to a Marvellous Party, which was my Wimseyfic response to the Open-Source Boobs Project and which has got loads of comments, but they're all on LJ. No stories without kudos, with the lowest being The Whispering Grass, which is the very definition of a story one writes for oneself, but still manages 13.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
Is once again that something that seems intimidating before starting it turns out to be straightforward once I stop procrastinating. In this case, going back to the beginning of the Wimsey/Potterverse crossover and giving a substantial edit before continuing, which I finally got my act together and started this afternoon and found I was making very respectable progress. Admittedly I didn't get to any of the bits that are going to be tough, but they look a lot less tough from where I'm standing now than they did a few days ago.

'Twas ever thus. But I have begun and will endeavour to continue. Actually, no, I should take a lesson from Yoda on this one. It is do or do not, and having been do not-ing I had damn well better do. Onwards!

I am grateful to the bank holiday* for the opportunity. I am grateful to the bank holiday full stop. I didn't take the last one*, but however much I have to do this week at work, and the answer is a vast amount, there was no way that after a weekend visit by my sister and my 5 and 3 year old nephews I wasn't going to need a weekend to recover. They are nice little boys, but they have a lot of energy. Also, they discovered the piano. And, it being an electric piano, how to operate the sound effects...

I am re-reading Monstrous Regiment for the first time since the first read. Like a lot of Pratchett of that period, I am enjoying it a lot more the second time round than the first. I am still not sure whether this is the tone shift, or me at the time of reading.

*I see from the internet that technically this is not Whit Monday, but so I think of it.

**Will get time in lieu.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
This fic is massively self-indulgent and destined for a very small audience, but I've written +1000 words of it today after not writing anything but my diary for several months, so I shall take that as a plus. I have not defrosted the freezer as planned, but I feel that is a minor price to pay.

Le weekend

Jun. 6th, 2016 11:32 am
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
Among other things...

Trousers taken up: 1 pair
Trousers let down: 1 pair (NB they were different trousers)

Tennis matches watched whilst doing the same: 1
Inevitable Serbian victories: 1

Summer holidays booked: 0
Rueful acknowledgement that you ought to have started sorting out summer holidays much sooner: many

Hollyhocks purchased: 1
Hollyhocks planted: 0

Pieces of writing worked on: 2
Web searches in conjunction with said writing include:
- How long does a body take to fall*
- Electrocution
- Electric shock deaths UK
- How long does plaster of Paris take to dry

I really hope that no-one I know turns up electrocuted with plaster casts taken of any part of their body before they're pushed off something. Obviously I would hope that anyway, but generally with less self-interest.


*Alas the Wikipedia page on equations for a falling body is the wrong kind of body, but the Splat Calculator (from a climbing website) was very helpful.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
I really need to buy that thesaurus. Still, with some effort I have managed to come up with sufficient synonyms for "terror".

I wish that those five years of daily primary school assemblies followed by four years of middle school thrice a week ones had been a bit less parables and 1980s school hymns*, and a bit more Book of Common Prayer so that I didn't have to hope that the quotations dictionary*** would contain something suitable for my fic purposes. It did, and the fic proceedeth towards its end. Fortunately the question of "was this vampire count Orthodox or Catholic during his life" can be left for another occasion.****

*Of the ten, we did eight of these, "Kum ba yah" cropped up in other singing, and I know a bit of "Colours of day" because my sisters' middle school did it. The effect on my spirituality can be summed up in that the most sincere observance of ritual I engaged in was to make sure to tidy the money tray before lunch on any day in winter that we sang "When I Needed a Neighbour" as in combination this was an unfailing spell to make it rain and let us stay in at dinner time.** I do occasionally sing some of them in the shower, though.

**Whereas "Have you heard the raindrops" was just a song about rain, and the chorus was invariably flat.

***My The New Penguin Dictionary of Quotations is absolutely indispensable for Wimseyfic, though this is not the genre in question this evening.

****Though I expect to go for Catholic should it be necessary to specify, it's simpler. Fascinating as the Unitarian Church of Transylvania is to read about, and the period is right, I think I'll leave that one out of it.

AKICOLJ/DW

Jan. 19th, 2016 10:44 pm
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
Help me, I seem to have forgotten a word and inexplicably do not own a thesaurus.

I want a synonym for "evangelist" in the sense of "person attempting to persuade another of a religion" rather than "John the E- ". I feel sure there is a word that exists that I can't quite remember and that would be better for my purposes; possibly I am wrong, but suggestions as to what it might be will be very gratefully received!

I seem to have failed to have an early night again, but never mind. At least this time it was in pursuit of fic.

ETA: Americanisms especially welcome.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
I have received a gift fic! Traitor to the cause. Vorkosigan fic in which, as the summary puts it, “Miles finally goes too far.”

I had two meetings at work today. Both have been cancelled. I am rather pleased with this as I have a ton of stuff to do that is more important. It would help if I weren’t feeling knackered due to waking up in the middle of the night because I was hungry, failing to go back to sleep after having a biscuit, and then not being able to eat more than half an orange for breakfast because I was tired… Oh irony.

There are too many things on at the cinema! I still haven’t seen Spectre, and I want to see Carol and Bridge of Spies. I really need to actually to get my act together and go, rather than procrastinate. Or end up at random films about sheep instead.

At the end of [community profile] picowrimo I have managed 6300 words on the eternal WIP, finished the bodyswap fic, and done much thinking about other ideas. I am considering this satisfactory, especially as I am carrying on into December rather than collapsing into a heap. Does anyone have any comments on using Scrivener? One of the many things I have learned from the eternal WIP is that I need a better way of organising both text and notes. Random bits of paper in a carrier bag and notes for different chapters jumbled together in Word docs is not ideal.
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
In this case, "Inability to come up with the single short sentence you need to finish the blasted fic." It's not even the final sentence!
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)
That’s not the perfect analogy, as I’m not being lead by the Ring to torment and madness, but in terms of how putting one foot in front of the other you will inevitably end up at somewhere*, it does well enough for a start.

On how I write. Cut for self-absorption, albeit personally useful self-absorption. Read more... )

*Random thought: in the absence of a boat, could elves swim to the Undying Lands?
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Default)
Continuing the theme of November as the month of getting on with things, an update.

This year I decided to participate in [livejournal.com profile] picowrimo as a means of trying to get myself tackling some writing again - any writing that required a commitment. I meant to do some fanfic and some original fic. Due to being fairly busy over the last fortnight, I’ve done less than I had hoped because I haven’t managed any at the weekends, so its been evenings only and often short ones at that. Nonetheless, I am feeling pleased with my progress, which I am sure I wouldn’t have made had it not been for the challenge of the comm. I’ve been intending to write the fic I’m working on at present for about two years, and now I not only have nearly 4000 words of it*, but I made myself work through the tricky bits. Moreover, instead of thinking “Oh, I haven’t time to write much now and I’m tired” I have made myself start writing and discovered that in fact I have got time, and that though I didn’t completely feel in the mood when I started, I soon got stuck in. One of the reasons I’d put off writing it, thinking “I need lots of time” was the issue of structure; the fic has quite a few shifts in time and POV (so that, for example, Harriet remembers kissing Peter in the punt before the narrative reaches it) so how to structure it avoiding the twin perils of one damn scene after another and too much shifting about. Ironically, it was a problem that only came to be solved when I sat down and thought “I don’t know what bit to put next. Try this”. It’s a reminder that there is more than one potential right way for something to come out. I think I have got the rest of the structure more or less worked out, thought there’s room for movement. The next scene, according to my jottings on the bus this morning is “Punt – sit down. Initial snogging.” I am just about managing not to stuff it with my interpretations of particular bits of canon, although there's still quite a bit in there.

On Tuesday night I finally made it to Mayerling, in the excellent company of [livejournal.com profile] dolabellae. We started off with £9 in the Upper Slips, which were pretty good for £9, but did involve a certain amount of leaning forward and a partially obscured bit of stage. So at the first interval we moved to a pair I had identified in the main Amphiteatre, which cost about £45 and had a very good view indeed. The ballet itself was an interesting contrast to Sleeping Beauty – much less a one classical move after another showpiece, but more of a drama and with a lot more plot (occasionally confusing. I’d have been stumped if I hadn’t bought a programme). It also contrasted in that whilst SB gave most of the glamour to the women, Mayerling was decidedly focussed on the lead man. The sets and costumes were gorgeous, though I heard a couple of people making similar comments to and me, that some of the women characters weren’t sufficiently distinctively costumed to tell them apart easily. Its portrayal of the Hapsburg Court is not a flattering one – they’re hypocritical, violent, treacherous, sex-mad, and in the case of Rudolf a syphilitic lunatic. The most admirable character is Rudolf’s mistress, Mitzi, who reports him for asking her to commit suicide with him.** It’s definitely not the Austrian Tourist Board’s version of Empress Sissi.

I am very much looking forward to the weekend. However despite being absolutely shattered I am continuing to get myself out of bed at seven and thus into work earlier than my usual wont, thanks to taking advantage of the clocks going back to reset myself.

My new boots had their first outing in Cambridge at the weekend (though I changed into old ones for the fireworks in the evening). I even managed to drive there and back in very little over the AA’s predicted time, which I was rather pleased by. The chest of drawers I bought in Ikea is still in the boot because I can’t lift it out in the box and haven’t had time to put it together. A task for the weekend.

I am 475 page through the 991 page Bible. Hurrah! Psalms is, alas, less good than I expected because it really requires reading alongside a commentary, which is far too heavy for the bus. I shall have to give it a skim at the weekend. Yes, it is after all going to be a busy weekend.

*I did have 1400 words before the month started, but still wrote them under the pico spur as I had decided to get this done as my first project.

**One of those odd historical notes that chimes somehow. I was reading The Glittering Prizes recently, which didn’t simply mention pasta as something that the characters would have experienced for the first time on holiday in Italy (some time in the fifties), but published in the seventies still italicised it.

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