loaded_march | Entries tagged with snippet

I know I said, Next up: Writing fight scenes, but that post will get kind of involved and will require me to draw sketches of all types and find links to show you what I'm talking about, because fight scenes, while ridiculously fun for me to write, aren't necessarily fun for anyone else, and visuals (particularly those including hilariously bad stick figures) make everything better.

So, instead, I'm going to write about introspection (it was a topic someone suggested, probably by accident, but still an equally valid topic). More specifically, character introspection.

( Click within for navel-gazing and fic snippets )

(apparently I used that subject line already, but, well, whatever)

(also, you want to read through to #3, because there's free fic for you down there!)

First off, I've been remiss in announcing the

summerpornathon voting, having completely forgotten to mention #4, and nearly forgetting about #5, which is this week. Voting ends tomorrow! The challenge this week is myths and legends. There are amazing entries this week!

Second, this week's

summerpornathon Bonus Challenge was awesome -- it was to take a text from Texts From Last Night and to write either a fic or post images based on those. You should check out the entries for the bonus challenge, because they are everything from hilarious to hot. I've put mine beneath the cut.

( Texts From Last Night Challenge )

Third, I wedged in some time to finish off the long version of my Challenge #2 entry, which was Fuck Or Die/Post-Apocalypse. Both the original (short) version and the longer (3,000-ish words) version are posted on AO3 under my drabbles tag. Part 2 of the drables is entitled The Bringer of the End, which, yes, I know, is a horrible title, but, eh, it's late, and everyone knows I SUCK at titles.

Oi! So does any of you remember the long-version of the

summerpornathon challenge #1 entry I wrote?

Well, this week's bonus challenge is to do a fanmix based on a character or a scene or anyone's entry thus far. I decided to do it based on a scene I had in my head for what happened after Still Waters Run.

Since the direct post to the current bonus challenge is video-heavy, I'm linking directly to my comment, but I'm also putting it behind the cut in case you don't want to head over there.

Special thanks to

hms_seth for helping me pick the songs!!

( Still Waters Run... and run )

So, part of the whole

summerpornathon thing is that one, we write an anonymous drabble of 500-750 words that matches the prompt for the week. This is what people vote on when they are posted on Fridays/Saturdays. The other part is a non-anonymous response to a bonus challenge.

Technically the bonus challenge can be very, very short and be very easy to fill.

Um.

Yeah. I don't do anything easy. And since the prompt burrowed into my brain like a parasitic worm, it ended up being a tad bit long.

BUT

It's set in the Loaded March universe, before the boys are called up to the Directory on a mission! If nothing else, doing this

summerpornathon thing is helping me with my porn, and it's also making me write LM-related stuff! Can't go wrong with that!

My response on the community is in two comments, or you can check it out in its entirety beneath the cut. It's rated G, so it should be safe to read anywhere!

( Last Supper )

.

Today was apparently the National Day in Honour of Preserving Brain Cells, and I didn't get the memo or something, because I felt like disappearing into the lab to invent some Idiot Repellent, but instead compromised by writing data extraction code to make it Idiot Proof. So far, so good!

This post comes to you by way of the letters M, 9, and #, whereupon I take apart some of my own (original) fiction, deconstruct a paragraph, and mention things like camera zoom, Mary Sues, and make an offer to crit anyone brave enough to face my inner editor.

( This way to a bit of original fic and the wrecking ball )

Random work in progress snippet (okay, just a line of dialogue, because it amuses me) to something that is:

a) Part 10 of Loaded March

b) An Extra to Loaded March

c) The Big Bang fic

d) Something that is none of the above and that I shouldn't be working on

( If you picked (d), read on )

In the last 48 hours, I have:

Shaken off the remnants of a head cold that hit on the heels of an allergic reaction
Had a meltdown and threatened to push the DELETE key over everything that I'd managed to write for the BB thus far (but one beta and a cheerleader who doesn't realize she's been co-opted as a cheerleader talked me off the ledge)
Gotten greatly antagonized with the realization that the last two weeks at work have pretty much eaten my brain, because there have been nothing but interruptions and dead bodies to clean up as a result
Realized that I'm a bit of a dolt on many levels, the least of which is not that I completely forgot to mention dialogue tags in the about-writing-dialogue post.

So I will do that now.

Dialogue tags are the he-saids, she-saids it-saids and the they-saids in any piece of fiction. But how to use them properly?

( There is no proper way. But there are snippets! )

I decided to test the theory that I could avoid getting bitten by yet another plot bunny, this one for the Merlin Big Bang, by writing the first scene to get it out of my head. In doing that, I re-discovered the reason why I do not let my inner editor out from the dungeons until I'm finished writing something.

It has to do with linecrafting, and making something sound just right.

(for the record, no, I haven't signed up for the Big Bang. I am not convinced I have a plot yet)

Anyway, sometimes I will write something, and it will be absolutely completely crap. There will be sufficient crap to pile it all high enough for it to get on any ride at the amusement park by itself. Other times, I don't have the scene firmly enough in my head, the extraneous details, the supporting environment, and it's a struggle to get something right. But once I have it down -- especially the first sentence of any given scene -- it comes out like a burst dam.

I must have rewritten this sentence a billion times during my lunch hour today, trying to get the right feel for the scene. Alas, the inner editor chose that moment to break loose, and this is what happened.

( Linecrafting for writers )

I lost my brain yesterday after watching two days straight of a Merlin Marathon on Space. Granted, it was only the first two seasons, but I saw a couple of episodes I hadn't seen before and got ridiculously happy that there was innuendo that I might not have to break canon for a particular thing in LM only to have my hopes dashed by a "By the way, did you know that..." at the end of that episode.

So, today, I'm in a petulant, Fine, I'll do whatever I want sort of mood.

Which means that today, you're getting a thing about writing on how I do my descriptions.

The usual disclaimer applies -- I'm not a doctor, though I play one on TV --

No, wait. That's not right. Let's try again:

The usual disclaimer applies -- The following episodes contain scenes of extreme violence, explicit sexual acts, and swearing --

*pinches bridge of nose*

This isn't working. *heavy sigh* Ok, I'll give it one more go.

The usual disclaimer applies -- I am a trained professional with over fifteen years of experience. Don't try this at home --

*throws arms up in frustration*

What I'm trying to say is, I don't know what I'm doing, what I do might not work for you, someone else out there might know a better way, and by all means, please chime in with how you do it so that other people (myself included) can benefit from your experience.

*blinks*

Hey, that wasn't so hard.

( This Way to the Description Exposition and Example Snippet )

I hope everyone's having great holidays!

I'm a little (OK, a lot) behind on comments, and even worse on reading fics that have been posted in the last two weeks, because I pretty much shut down to do little else but write and edit to get part 8 up by the deadline that I set myself. My beta has gotten back to me with corrections and edits, but I'm having a hard time getting started for a variety of reasons that sound frighteningly like being burned out.

As much as I'd love to write a couple of LM Extras while I'm on vacation (admittedly, a very rare occurrence), writing anything is a little hard to do when the dogs are running around with the squeak toys that they got for Christmas. That's not the annoying part. It's that, by virtue of them being medium-sized dogs with long tails, I end up chasing after them and picking up everything they knock off the coffee tables, shelves, and DVD stand.

But they're cute, so I'll forgive them.

In other news, I've received a surprising (and flattering) number of very nice and very sweet PMs about the writing in LM. Some of those PMs are questions about the technical stuff of writing. So in the future, I am going to put up more posts like this one, starting with how to set the scene.

As a disclaimer, I am not an expert on writing, some things may not make sense, and I might contradict myself. But since I firmly believe that no one thing works for everyone all of the time, please feel free to chime in with your own approaches and tips!

( Setting Scenes, With Possible Future Snippet as an Example )

Alas, there was piddling word-count today for two reasons: I had to work (like every other day), but this time work was particularly vicious and vindictive and venomous, and it ate my brain and made it useless for the rest of the evening.

I did manage 2,000 words on Part 7 (still nameless), and they are 2,000 good words, especially since they include a scene that had me giggling for nearly an hour afterward just from the mental imagery.

Since 2,000 words is below my usual word count for the day, I'll appease the masses with a completely non-spoilery snippet of that funny scene (at least, I think it's funny).

( But in case you don't want to read any snippets, I've snuck it behind a cut )