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Post by Afgncaap5 on Mar 15, 2006 3:19:14 GMT -5
Well, if you know them it'd probably be okay, though even then it can get tricky.
A few years back at h2g2.com Spamming was an issue during our two previous Presidential elections when people would go to their friends' user spaces and leave messages in support of their fave (I'm dissapointed that Celery didn't win against Peregrin, but I'm glad that the most recent campaign resulted in Hypatia as a winner....not that those names mean anything to people here, of course).
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Post by Cleolanta on Mar 15, 2006 8:10:48 GMT -5
Oh, I would never do anything coming close to _real_ spam. Certainly not going right into people's private spaces and telling them how to vote. Gah. But showing a story to somebody I know, in private...that's like...well...I can't think of anything to say what it's like other than what it is. :P You know what I mean. Sending junk mail all over town is spam--showing your story to your best friend and saying "Will you read my manuscript?" is just normal interaction between friends.
And you don't get very _many_ responses in that personal, door-to-door approach either, anyway. Basically I would be doing that just to get anybody to read it _at all_, around here. Crow's Art is NOT popular. I need somewhere good to post it where people can come by and read it if they want, somewhere public...ish...but Fanfic.net nixed its MST category years ago.
But enough complaining from me. I haven't actually done that (PMing people about my story), by the way, and I probably won't.
...Notorious
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Mar 15, 2006 12:50:59 GMT -5
Well, again, I don't see a problem with letting people you know know about the story. It's just one of those "thin ice" issues.
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Post by Cleolanta on Mar 16, 2006 1:50:33 GMT -5
Yeah...and I'm sorry for bitching like this. I'm just glad anybody at all got to read it, and actually said something. When it comes to reviews, I'd rather have quality over quantity. My fanfics on Fanfic.net each got somewhere up to maybe 9 reviews each at the most, but they were all intelligent, well-written ones that named specific details of the fic and discussed it like a conversation. I'd rather have a few of those than a hundred random idiot newbies saying "omg ur stry rulz plz writ mor!!!!!111oneoneone"
Anyway. I still think we just need some way to either make Crow's Art more visible, or allow people to post creative MST-related stuff in other forums. PM-ing people individually isn't the solution; the whole forum is just not visible at all. Now WHAT can be done about this I have no idea, but, ya know, it's just a thought. In general this is a very well-run place; it's just this one thing that bothers me, really.
...Notorious
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Mar 16, 2006 11:22:15 GMT -5
Yeah, I know what you mean about wanting good reviews. I wrote a Zelda story on FF.net called Edward Kidnastoff which got a lot of really good reviews (even though it was actually a pretty mediocre story).
The next thing I wrote I just got discouraged with and stopped because I couldn't get any reviews beyond "Hey, your story good come review mine."
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Post by Cleolanta on Mar 16, 2006 19:03:34 GMT -5
By the way, this is off-topic a bit, but...since I've got you here, and you're an Admin...could you maybe put my custom title back?
You see, it seems some people's got nixed when the new/old board look and post count thingies were put in. The people who had insult-titles from The Forbidden Thread still have theirs. And the mods/admins/real veterans still have theirs. But people like me and DaWormFace sort of got dropped out of the middle...
So, please, could I be "Oldschool Girl" again? Please? :)
Anyway, yeah, I'd rather have a few intelligent reviews than a bunch of idiot fangirls giggling simply over the fact that their favourite bishounen character was in the story. And for some reason, my stories--when they get noticed at all--tend to attract that kind of reviewer. I will always treasure the one where somebody said, about a sad part in one of my stories, "Do you know how hard it is to read through tears?" BWAhaha. ;) Or my first Darkwing Duck story, which involved time-travel. We had people arguing about paradox and trying to figure out how Character A could have done this thing before he knew about what Character B had done, etc....a whole discussion about it. Heh.
We ALL get the bane of writers' existence type reviews from time to time (simply: "I liked/hated your story", with no explanation why) but really...the ones in which they give _details_ are like, food and drink to us. It's what we REALLY want to hear. Of course, you should just write for yourself and not for reviews, and I do...and that's why I tend to get so few of them. I often get inspired by esoteric little things like one scene in one episode that really got me, or a throw-away line that makes me wonder "What if that really DID happen...?" So only deep-level FANS fans who have seen every episode at least twice and paid close attention can keep up with my fanfics, usually. So, ya know, I don't really _expect_ a lot of people to read them. (shrug)
...Notorious
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Post by Cleolanta on Mar 17, 2006 19:09:29 GMT -5
Hey, thank you, Afgncaap! :)
...Notorious
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Mar 18, 2006 1:56:57 GMT -5
Anytime.
I need to write some fanfics again some time soon....just gotta get a good inspiration....
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Post by wedestroymyths on Mar 18, 2006 21:46:11 GMT -5
I really enjoyed reading this, a couple of highlights? Joel's thoughts about a corporation turning itself around before he's reshot into space, as well as Forrester in general. I think you nailed him, especially in the scene where they venture down to Deep 13--his sort of delusions of grandeur/ego centricism is wonderfully done.
The only bit I didn't buy so much was Joel's brief realization that he'd been duped again. It didn't seem odd, enigmatic, or aloof enough for Joel. Of course, I haven't seen much of season 1 in years, so maybe I'm forgetting something.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this. It was the first fan fic of anything i'd ever read, and it was a lovely way to procrastinate from starting on my big paper.
Thanks for the great read.
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Post by Cleolanta on Mar 19, 2006 7:43:25 GMT -5
_My_ fanfic was the first of that whole type you ever read. Wow. That's a bit of an honour right there! :)
I enjoyed writing this story (as if you couldn't tell)...especially Dr. F, for some reason. Mad scientists/wacky inventors (the second kind are more or less good guys) have always been a favourite type of character for me. One reason why I was able to write Dr. F the way I did, however, might have something to do with my previous MSTie Internet history--on the MST messageboard I was on before this one, my username was "Clayton Forrester", and I'd often drop into role-playing as him any time I felt like. It gave me experience in...looking out through the character's eyes, I guess you could say.
As for Joel....yeah, I realise that his reaction to being tricked is not as..."weird which results in creativity" as it could be, but that was mostly due to timing. If I had him muse about it while the ship is taking off, that would slow down the pacing of the dramatic launch scene. And then to end the scene with simply: "Stars. At high noon."...I wanted to do that, because it's so stark and gets the point across with few words. I _could_ have possibly had him react in a more Joel-like fashion there, but, ya know. It was a style decision. (shrug)
On the other hand, in the _next_ scene after being launched, we see that one of the first things he thinks of is "How much of the ship can I safely take apart to build robots?"--so that's definitely the Joel we know and love there. :P
...Notorious
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Post by wedestroymyths on Mar 19, 2006 11:58:04 GMT -5
Nice defense of the Joel reaction. That makes perfect sense for moving the piece along.
Are we going to get to read anymore wonderful fan fics?
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Post by slwatson on Mar 19, 2006 16:57:58 GMT -5
I've been *trying* to talk her into writing some more -- we need more MST3K authors! The breed is dying off! Maybe I'll issue a fic challenge here...
If you want to read a very wonderful little Joel story, Bodger's Musings (http://www.geocities.com/mst3kfiction/Musings.txt) where Joel tries to explain the concept of death to a very young Crow. It's a sweet tribute she wrote for a fellow RATMMer, and it's short so it won't eat much time up.
Another Joel classic is Monster Movie (http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/pimlico/131/monster.html) by Paula O'Keefe, long considered one of the greatest examples of actual dramatic MST3K fanfic that *still* is perfectly in character. It's a longer story, but absolutely worth the read.
And, of course, 3000: A Space Oddity... but that one goes without saying.
::grins:: Hey, maybe if you read enough, you'll get inspired to take a crack at writing your own.
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Post by wedestroymyths on Mar 19, 2006 17:03:20 GMT -5
::grins:: Hey, maybe if you read enough, you'll get inspired to take a crack at writing your own. thanks for all the recommends. i need some good fun reading right now in the brief break between the hardest quarter of school ever, and the quarter that will soon surpass it.
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Post by slwatson on Mar 19, 2006 17:15:42 GMT -5
No problem; glad to pimp my obsessions at any chance I can. Tell me what you think of those if you get a chance, too -- they're among my favorites.
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Post by Cleolanta on Mar 24, 2006 1:01:01 GMT -5
Thanks, guys, for your kind words. Sorry I didn't respond here earlier. I just...forgot. Sorry.
Anyway. I think one reason I'm not that successful or well-known of a fanfic author is that...I don't have very _many_ ideas. Often, I really only have _one_ thing that I wanted to say about the subject, and once I do that, it's like, well, that's my take on it, that's my definitive story. I just wanted to explore that one idea, fill in that one gap in the background, make that one point. Other than that, anything else I might have wanted to say...has already been said by many other fans.
That's why I'm not that well known. I don't have big long _sagas_ with fan-characters who get written about so much that they become "famous" and have fans of their own. It's the people who write long series, who are _prolific_, that have fans and get noticed. Me, I tend to put everything I wanted to say about the show into one story--often a long one, true, but still, only one--and then, since I'm done, shut up. :P I write A Mystery Science fic. I write A Deep Space Nine fic. I write A Gargoyles fic. And then I'm done. That, and I often pick some esoteric little moment or exact scene to write about, because _that's_ what inspired me; rather than big themes that are throughout the show overall. Which is why I wrote my Gargoyles fic, for example, focusing on a relatively minor character instead of something big and obvious (and popular) like the Goliath/Elisa romance. For some reason, weird little side things always inspire me more than big obvious whole-show-wide stuff. Like, some throw-away line will strike me as intriguing: "Hey, what if that _did_ actually happen?" or "I liked the side of that character that was shown in that one scene; let's explore that further." Meaning that unless you saw/remember that one bit, you won't get what the phrack I'm on about. Heh.
I don't have sagas in mind, and I don't want to get deep with my fan characters (I prefer to use mostly canon ones, anyway)--all I wanted to do was show how we got from the KTMA setup to the Season One version, or have a fun time-travel story in which Odo ends up arresting himself without knowing he's done it, or put the Third Race in real danger and explain my own (conflicting with most fans') theories on how magic works in the Gargoyles universe. And if I ever get the huge, EPIC "Exiles of Arcadia" finished, it'll be everything I wanted to say about the game universe of "Skies of Arcadia" in one package. Big dramatic ideas about the background and secrets of that world, the types of adventures I wanted to write, _and_ my opinion of how some character stuff should wrap up, all in the same novel-length story.
Sure, I often still have a few ideas left over, but not enough to make a whole story out of. Sometimes, over time, that builds up enough to be a whole story. But without a spark of inspiration from out of the blue, I can't put them all into a _plot_.
The end result of all this rambling is that I LOVE to write...but I don't do it as often or as consistently as I'd like. :P
...Notorious
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