cjmarlowe

Excuse me while I talk about politics for a second. Talking about who I voted for feels a little bit weird, because of deep-seated social conventions, but what the hell.

When I got up this morning, I honestly didn't know who I was going to vote for. I've actually been a card-carrying member of the NDP for years (that's not just a figure of speech; there is, in fact, a card) but I'm living in Oakville right now and in Oakville it's pretty much a two-horse race--the Liberals and Conservatives have been flip-flopping control of this riding for years. So really, it was a choice between voting my conscience and voting strategically. But as soon as I got behind the voting screen I didn't hesitate to vote my conscience, no second thoughts required. I hope I didn't just hand my vote to Harper, but it was the only choice I could come home feeling good about, and it's just one vote but I think it matters.

And now for something completely different.

I completely disassembled and reassembled my queer_fest story last night, and now I'm re-filling in all the blanks to smooth it out for posting tomorrow. After I finished the first draft I worried that I was going to need to rewrite the entire thing, because I really wasn't satisfied with it, but in the end I think I salvaged about 2/3 and that's really not bad. My first Fringe story! I'm kind of excited. Though next time it will occur to me not to select a posting date before the season finale airs.

Last post of today, I promise!

I wrote 6 stories for Yuletide this year, 2 of which were assignments and 4 of which were treats. I was so excited when I got my assignment, you guys. Seriously, I jumped up and bounced into the other room so that I could tell andrealyn what the fandom was. I bounced. One might even have called it skipping. I also grabbed a pinch hit early on in a fandom I really wanted to write. There may have been bouncing then, too. None of these stories I wrote this year are sexually explicit; in fact, all of them are pretty much gen.

Assignments

Champions of Freedom, Purveyors of Hope, Defenders of Happy Meals [League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: America 1988]
When Max Zorin unleashes a deadly bioweapon known as the mogwai in an effort to sabotage his competition in the microchip industry, the results get out of hand more quickly than he could imagine. Dr. Emmett Brown and the reformed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are on the job, but this might be their most dangerous challenge yet. 5500 words. [Canon.]

Oh, I had such grand plans for this story. I had pages of notes of things I wanted to slip in there, and a four-book structure that broke down the whole adventure like a limited series would have. It was way too ambitious for a Yuletide timeframe. So I kept my original story, scaled back, rearranged the narrative so that it started at what was originally the ending, and somehow (I think) made it work. Instead of fifty references to 80s books/tv shows/movies there are now about a dozen, not counting the members of the league themselves and the three-canon mashup that is the main plot, and I think all things considered I'm pretty happy with that. So thank you, calliopes_pen for a great prompt, and I'm glad you liked your story! (And now that I'm revealed, I'll come back and answer your question shortly. XD)


Moil and the Man: Sixty-Three Ways to be Heard Over the High King of Hoovers [Un Lun Dun - China Mieville]
Revolution seemed pretty easy sometimes, compared to all the work that came after. 3190 words.

I really, really wanted to write a story about Deeba Resham this year, because she is awesome, and if this pinch hit hadn't shown up I probably would have written a treat for the fandom in those mad five days between when assignments are due and when the archive opens. It's always a real treat when the request is exactly what you want to write: Deeba and Hemi, and what happens after the book. fairest1, you rock, and I'm glad you enjoyed!


Treats

I don't really do anything for Yule or Christmas or even New Year's, so I'm not joking when I say that Yuletide itself is what I look forward to most every year as a holiday season in and of itself, and the frenzy of writing treats in the days before the archive opens is a part of that. For the past couple of years I've had specific goals going into the treating frenzy: to write at least one story featuring a chromatic character, at least one story featuring a canon queer character, at least one story that features a female character, and one story for a Canadian canon source, individually or in combination. I met them this year, and finished four of the seven treats I started. (I hope to finish the other three as New Year's Resolution stories, or at least the two that are in tiny-even-for-Yuletide canons.)


Promises like roses in the sunshine [Terriers]
Promises are a lot easier to make than to keep, but Britt's not taking the easy way out anymore. 1000 words. Whyyyy was this show cancelled? D: This is Britt following the end of the last episode, so there are very explicit spoilers if you haven't seen it.

Triton's Cove [The Little Mermaid]
Eric had always known that Ariel could make the choice to return to the sea, that all she had to do was ask. He was as in love with her as he had been from the moment they met, but once the first delirious days of their relationship passed, he couldn't help but wonder if he would wake up one morning and find her gone. 1600 words. Wow, everyone and their brother wrote treats for this one this year! :D I was really, really inspired by the request, and knew I wanted to feel out Eric's POV on the hard realities of marrying a mermaid (not only his, but everyone's).

Lessons in Letting Go [Breakfast with Scot]
When Scot's date shows up on their doorstep, dressed in pea coat and scarf with a halo of dark curls, Sam isn't sure whether Bryce is a boy or a girl. 1000 words. I wasn't even planning to write this at all until I rewatched the movie on Christmas morning, and the archive was still unexpectedly open for treats. I wanted to do a lot of things with it, really. Sexuality is far more complex than just gay or straight, and I wanted to follow the film's lead in not pinning Scot down in those terms. I also wanted to get inside Sam's head for a little while, and at least nod at Eric's continuing coming-out process which is one of the central themes of the film.

Tiger Heart [Double Happiness]
Jade's been living on her own for almost a month before she sees her brother. 700 words. The request was for Jade, and it was so tough deciding which of her relationships to explore (knowing I only had time for something quite short), because there are so many directions it could have gone in. My gut told me Winston, because he's the one present in the movie by his absence, something both very relevant to the story and also something that leaves a lot of room for exploration.

GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE, 2009! I BID YOU WELCOME, 2010!

This is Not a Writing Meme, just a quick rundown of my year:

American Idol (and Related) Stories: 64
» 0-500 words: 4
» 500-1000 words: 15
» 1000-2000 words: 29
» 2000-5000 words: 11
» 5000-10000 words: 2
» 10000-20000 words: 2
» 20000-50000 words: 1

Supernatural and CWRPF Stories: 29
» 0-500 words: 11
» 500-1000 words: 9
» 1000-2000 words: 2
» 2000-5000 words: 1
» 10000-20000 words: 4
» 20000-50000 words: 1
» 50000+ words: 1

Other Fandoms: 11
» 0-500 words: 3
» 500-1000 words: 3
» 1000-2000 words: 5

TOTAL WORD COUNT 2009 (both posted and unposted): 514,605

Man, I know I have a lot of commitments for this summer/fall already, but I am so, so tempted by polybigbang. I mean, I love writing poly relationships, and I already have at least four options in mind, in four different fandoms. And it's only 10,000 words, which is really not that much (and which, if I do this, I will probably go far beyond). So, yeah.

Also, Adam and Kris interviewing one another is the most presh thing ever.

Yesterday was sort of a crazy day of ups and downs, which I was going to write about and then just... didn't. Which is probably for the best because it would've just been a list of "and then this happened which was cool... and then this happened which sucked... and then this happened which was awesome... and then this happened which sucked harder... and then--" Well, you get the picture.

So, just because I can, good things about today so far:
» The sun is shining and the birds are singing and the squirrels are frolicking, and I mean every one of those things literally.
» I got paid.
» The location manager for the show called and everything is thumbs up.
» Said call resulted in me getting money.
» I reached 20,000 in my Big Bang. Actually, I blew right past it. (It's nowhere near done, but there's something about reaching the magic number that's satisfying nonetheless.)
» I'm wearing my favourite jeans.
» I have tea and sale-priced easter chocolate.
» I have not yet spilled anything on myself. However, the day is young.
» John Rogers is twittering regularly and as a result my love for Leverage grows even more.
» Dean Devlin is also twittering. Fewer people have noticed this.
» I still have five hours before I have to go to work.

This morning I woke up and the heat was still on and I didn't immediately attempt to hack up a glue-filled lung so I'd say today is shaping up to be a Very Good Friday. (Well, I did cough immediately upon sitting up, but it was more of a "Let me just clear that crap out of your throat for you, Madame Awesome, and is there anything else I can do for you today?" kind of cough.)

I've set myself extremely high writing goals for today, but I know I can do it if I just sit down and do it. My biggest obstacle is, like, the constant urge to wander away and get gelato or change my music or just stare out the window because it's there. But today I have goals so let's see how well I can do with that.

If by noon I have twenty new icons, a clean sock drawer and a couple more LJ posts, you'll know how it's going.

It's probably irrational to be angry at traffic for not parting at a convenient moment so that I could jaywalk on my way to work. *sigh* But that didn't stop me from shaking my fist! (Metaphorically. Actually shaking your fist at things just gets you the wrong kind of attention these days.)

The problem with spending every waking moment writing, trying to write, thinking about writing, wishing I was writing, procrastinating about writing or... walking to work, is that I realised I've barely read a thing in... probably weeks, really. I tried to rectify that for a couple hours this afternoon while my computer was mostly tied up with transferring massive numbers of files, but I still feel like there's so much out there that I need to catch up with. Damn you, fandom, for being impossibly prolific.

Also, from everything I'm hearing these past few days, Jensen and Danneel are MFEO (in more ways than both being impossibly hot) and that fills my tiny, black heart with indescribable joy. XD

ETA: No, that's not sarcasm! She sounds sweet and shy and a little socially awkward and pretty much awesome.

I've decided that this Saturday needs to be devoted to laundry and mending, which I've put off for entirely too long. The mending, that is, not the laundry. Though to be fair, I'm washing everything this weekend and not just that limited subset of clothing that I wash and wear over and over again. I've saved enough coinage for four loads, which should let me do everything including bedding and towels.

Part of this is prompted by the fact that sadly I'm back to living the way I did when I was a student, only spending money on essentials with virtually no disposable income. Hell, yesterday I counted the change in my pocket and had to make a choice between taking the subway home and buying a litre of milk. I'm glad it was a nice night. So mending and patching the clothes that have been piling up in the back of my closet has become more of a necessity and less of a project that I maybe could possibly get around to one day.

And the other part is that in that accumulation of clothing I found a sweater that I haven't worn in forever. Now, I'm of a size where conventional wisdom says wearing horizontal stripes should be avoided at all costs, but this sweater looks amazing on me. It also has a few holes that need to be mended before they get any worse. Who knows what other forgotten treasures are waiting for me in there?

Although I guess I should really say that this Saturday needs to be devoted to laundry and mending and writing. I've been driving my friends crazy with this these past few days, but I'm having second thoughts about my SPN/J2 Big Bang story and giving serious thought to starting it all over again. I know this stems from a neurotic inability to commit to one idea, but a part of me really does want to scrap everything I've written and write a steampunk au instead. After having the notion haunt me for days and interfere with me working on anything else, I've decided I need to give it a shot. Either it'll click, or giving it that attention will make me realise that my original idea really is the one I want to go with.

Oh God. I just realised this all means I'm going to have a massive amount of ironing to do too. ;_; Hopefully I'll be able to unearth myself before the weekend is over.

So this week I finally did what I probably should've done a month or two ago: I cancelled my cable tv. While it was mainly a financial decision, it also came down to the fact that I just didn't need it anymore. I have a lot of other things I could be doing (including watching the many, many DVDs that I own), and my work schedule means that whenever I was actually watching TV it was usually just for background noise anyway. It's still a little weird not having it there, but I have to say, I haven't really missed it so far.

Finally got my day with andrealyn today (rescheduled after the heat debacle of last weekend) in which we watched the second half of Band of Brothers and ate good food, which is always lovely. I have, however, now had a headache for over five hours. I thought it was caffeine withdrawal at first; now I don't know what to think. Maybe there's just something in the air, because I've been coughing and sneezing an awful lot today too.

So the heat finally has been fixed, hopefully for good this time. It's perfectly pleasantly warm in here, though I still find I want to put the space heater on sometimes (like right now sometimes) because I like to be really warm and cozy. Especially when I'm settling in to get a good couple of hours of writing in, which hopefully is what I'm doing right now. I have to get up for a doctor's appointment tomorrow, but that still leaves me a good chunk of time tonight to get things done.

This is a procrastination post. Believe me, I know and acknowledge this, and as soon as I'm finished it I promise I'm going back to writing and/or work. But it's also something that I wanted to talk about at the time but was unfortunately more or less LJ-less outside of work.

I finished my eighth Nanowrimo on December 1 (or rather, I participated in my eighth; I actually only completed my seventh) and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The thing is, is that I know that I can write fifty thousand words in a month. In fact, I can do it in much less than a month. But the cameraderie of November is something I really enjoy, so I've been coming up with other ways to challenge myself. This year I was trying to write two projects; one fannish and one original. (I've never written anything fannish for Nanowrimo before so that was actually the new part for me.) This was, in the end, probably the wrong direction to take with it; I did exceed fifty thousand by a substantial margin, but I didn't reach the full hundred, and the projects definitely didn't proceed equally. The fannish project passed fifty thousand individually; the other didn't even come close.

The real problem, and probably the source of my dissatisfaction, was that neither of them was finished. And looking back, that's often a point that I reach at the end of November, where the word count isn't the hard part, it's finishing a project that is. Thus, my goal for next year is born: worry less about word count - I know I can and will write long enough - and worry more about managing to actually complete a project.

Then December came along and I started full speed ahead on my Yuletide story (and believe me when I say there's an epic making-of story to go with it, too, which will have to wait till January) so I put both projects on hold until the new year. So I have about sixty thousand words of a Supernatural 'Jess lives' story - which, aside from the occasionally flabby writing that comes of consciously trying to make a daily word count, I actually love - that I really want to finish and do something with.

So despite my dissatisfaction with the journey this year, at least I got something to look forward to out of it. :)