foxinthestars

Do not kill your darlings. Be on the lookout for places your darlings don't belong, and move them somewhere more congenial.

(Places they don't belong may include the final draft, and somewhere more congenial might be a private corner of your computer or your mind, but I find this way of looking at it much more helpful.)

I wouldn't be surprised if I've posted something to this effect before, but it would have been years ago, and the "kill your darlings" bit is a long-running pet peeve of mine. I feel like I've seen people literally interpret it as "delete anything you like too much," which to me sounds like a good way to squeeze the life out of your work. Also it seems to reflect a weird underlying "writing is for badasses" kind of attitude that I think is silly.

I just changed my default icon from my old cartoon fox to my SCA coat of arms. The first time I showed up to a meeting of my shire, I said I was there to nerd out about history (hence the book) and do crafts (hence the knot), and that has been holding up well.

Been busy the last couple of days and haven't posted. We got my mom ready and took her to the doctor, which is a big job these days, but we got it done and hopefully the doctor visit will result in some progress.

On the fannish side, for the first time in years my fanfic spigot has opened, and draft Honzuki fics are pouring out. I've got one complete draft one-shot and another that's most of the way there. I don't know how long this will last, and I kind of don't know what to do with them? Like, "post to Ao3" is the obvious thing, but where does one find beta readers these days? Do I need a beta reader that much? Do I need to do canon review (and if so, how many of the canon's three-dozen-plus volumes need reviewing)? What do I want out of posting these fics? It seems like a waste not to, but if I ask myself whether I want comments and kudos the answer seems to be "not that much" (on the other hand, disabling comments is not an appealing notion). Well, these are solvable problems if I calm down and work through them.

Ah, it almost slipped my mind, but MST3K is one of my longtime loves, and the MST veterans at Rifftrax are doing a Kickstarter to make a new season. Only 36 hours left as of this writing!



Only four episodes but they've gotten pledges for... (counts on fingers) 102 times as much money as they asked for?

I was a loyal backer of the previous MST3K revival seasons and glad they got made, but they haven't done it for me quite like the classics. I'm guardedly optimistic about this effort coming closer, but it also might just be that I got attached to the show during a moment in my life that has passed and thus nothing will ever hit in quite the same way. But I'm still in.

And (warning: in-jokes ahead) the most recent season ended with several characters going back in time, so if they wanted to make some continuity gesture while bringing back Mike, Kevin!Servo, and Bill!Crow --- well, first off, it's just a show, you should really just relax, but they could always say it was one of them weird numbers where Jonah and/or Emily stepped on a butterfly or something, and then 'cause of that a certain Radio Shack in the Upper Midwest folded slightly sooner than it otherwise would have, and then 'cause of that the Sci-Fi Channel never secured the rights to Diabolik, and now here we are in an alternate timeline.

It's Yuletide time again! Thank you, kind writer, for volunteering to write a story for me, or for considering writing a treat for me!

I've been doing Yuletide every year since 2011 and it's a precious annual tradition for me. I hope my prompts inspire you and you enjoy Yuletide this year, too!

See under the cut for the things you need to know… ( Includes prompts for Fiber Arts Anthropomorphic, Cadfael Chronicles, Nirvana in Fire, Pui Pui Molcar, The Female Doctor and Rabbit Spirit, and Toshokan Rocket )

And that’s it! Happy writing and a Joyous Yuletide to you!

So I went and got an Audible subscription.

Anyone have any recommendations?

So I got an invite to Pillowfort and signed up. So far I haven't really grasped it or found a lot of activity, but it seems kind of promising?

Anybody in my dwircle on Pillowfort, or have tips or recs for getting into it?

CN: COVID-19 Pandemic

I had thought it was getting close to time to remind everybody of my non-rapey version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" when another holiday song rewrite struck me.

So here, have a 2020 version of "Holly Jolly Christmas":

Have an Anti-Covid Christmas (2020)

Have an Anti-Covid Christmas!
It’s a different kind of year.
There’ll be Zoom, and lots of room
Between our friends and here.

Have an Anti-Covid Christmas,
And when you must go to town,
Say a friendly word, your face cover’d
To keep the virus down.

Oh, ho, pick up the phone;
Call the ones you miss.
They’d love to hear from you.
Say “We’ll get through this!”

Have an Anti-Covid Christmas,
And in case you didn’t hear:
Oh by golly don’t give anybody Covid
This year!

(Have an Anti-Covid Christmas!
It’s a different kind of year.)

Have an Anti-Covid Christmas,
And buy all your gifts online.
Spread some glee and ship touch-free,
And everyone’s just fine.

Oh, ho, pick up the phone;
Call the ones you miss.
They’d love to hear from you.
Say “We’ll get through this!”

Have an Anti-Covid Christmas,
And in case you didn’t hear:
Oh by golly don’t give anybody Covid
This year!

Well, whatever plans I had for pre-signup Yuletide canon bingeing have pretty much fallen apart, but I'm signed up anyway, so it's all good.

I still have been messing around with watching canons from the tagset and, being in the mood to explore more c-dramas, I have at last hit upon The Legends and am finding it very fun.

It's a xianxia in a typically-undefined historical period (so yeah, more Cultivators Being Dramatic). The super-Extra female lead starts out wide-eyed and kind-hearted, but after being epically betrayed by a Lawful Self-Righteous type, she goes all "screw 'goodness'" and becomes the infamous Demoness whose name strikes terror into all. Just as she's about to claim the Super Demon Sword, she's attacked by her enemies, has the sword snatched before her eyes by a subordinate she thought she could trust, and dies. Years later, some hapless kid with a vendetta of her own accidentally brings the Demoness back from the dead (with some weird side-effects), and they're off to wreak vengeance or possibly bring peace and justice to the world after all.

That's the first six episodes.

What I really like about it is definitely a Mileage May Vary thing and could change as it goes on, but for me this show has the perfectly-balanced sprinkle of schlockiness to make it go down easy without spoiling the fun.

I mean seriously, in one of the male lead's first scenes, some thugs beat him up while he's trying to pet a puppy. Literally! It's so shamelessly transparent that I can't take it too seriously or be too stressed out by it, but it doesn't descend into being painfully or embarrassingly stupid. I'm still like "So I'm supposed to sympathize with this character; okay, sure!" (My only regret is that he didn't keep the dog. Aw.)

After some shows that were good in a really intense and absorbing way (lookin' at you, "The Untamed"), this is just pleasant. Like, the suspension of disbelief feels less like parasailing and more like being on a swingset: safely within reach of the ground, but it's fun to keep flying.

It's nice to find something I can just enjoy binge-watching without constantly pausing it to regulate my stimulation level.

Yuletide draws closer and closer -- nominations are done (mine went through without a hitch), and the tagset is now open for viewing. Lots of good stuff this year! (People even squeezed in the animated and chibi-animated versions of MDZS. ::shrug::)

So, now it's time to sift through and figure out what I want to request, what I want to offer, and what I can stuff into my proverbial mouth before sign-ups end (ie, within the next 2 weeks).

I definitely want to finish Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, and this might be a good chance to catch up on the specifically-nominated Ascendance of a Bookworm anime since I never watched the second season. That might be as much as or more than I can manage, but we'll see how it goes.

Anyone with Ao3 expertise,

Is there a canonical tag that means "it's a canon character but they're keeping their identity secret at this point in an ongoing fic and the author doesn't want to spoil it yet"? What would you suggest for that?

---Oop, found it! It's "Undisclosed Character(s)." Posting after all in case someone else might want to know.