Two Memes and Alice McDermott

[sub_divided]

March
Call Me Anytime, Loveless, 1050 words
Call Me Anytime Part 2, Loveless, 1448 words
Pillars, Mushishi, 3905 words
High Turnover Rate, Yukikaze, 935 words
Slash oneshot (outline), Original, 3683 words

April
Call Me Anytime Part 3, Loveless, 1922 words
Short Vacation, 12 Kingdoms, 1578 words
Cigaretta, Loveless, 743 words, chain_of_fics
The Jeweler and the Man from Mosul, 1001 Nights, 3667 words

May
Obedience, Loveless, 927 words, chain_of_fics

June
Progress Report, Loveless, 168 words, chain_of_fics

July
Call Me Anytime part 4, Loveless, 1968 words
Ransom, Pirates of the Caribbean (WIP), 1221 words
Untitled, the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (WIP, not posted), 1214 words

August
Inadequate Yuuta/Mayumi, Mainichi Seiten, 1144 words, chain_of_fics
Anti OTP, Loveless, 771 words, anti-OTP challenge

September
Letterfics (repost), Death Note & Prince of Tennis, 243 words, for svz_insanity
Hypnosis, Loveless, 601 words
Sensation Threshold, Loveless, 283 words, chain_of_fics

October
Jojo oneliners, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, 6 x 14 = 84 words

November
Type B Orchestra, Nodame Cantabile, 944 words, chain_of_fics

December
Wolf Fic, Zelda: Twilight Princess, 823 words
Elections, Legend of Galactic Heroes, 1348 words, chain_of_fics
Have Story, Need Characters (outline), Original, 1297 words
Chandelier, Original (wip, not posted), 877 words


Total = 31909. I didn't write much this year. XD; Actually that's not true, I wrote a lot of book reports and school essays. Anyway what you can see from this list is that I am most productive when I have a lot of free time, and write nothing (or hardly anything) when I am in Michigan concentrating on school or depressed. March was a relatively full month by way of being a release of pent-up creativity (aha), while the frustration of October and November drove me to write something, anything, in December. -_- Being a reason for why the December fics (and Type B Orchestra) aren't very good. My goal for this year is to increase my stamina (stop posting things I'm not happy with just because I am too lazy to work on them some more) and to finish a few original things.

High-level considerations typed in a comment to petronia:
It's admirable. I gave up thinking about my writing on that level months ago. ^^; It wasn't getting me anywhere. I'm still at the point where what I need to do to improve is WRITE MORE and quit posting half-finished things just because I am bored with them. At this point I have to approach every story on its own terms.

...Right now what I'm trying to do is make sure every story concludes in a way that ties together its emotional heart, not just the action, while also not being TOTALLY unsubtle and clumsy. It's what I've been trying to do all along but I think I've been missing the mark lately. At the same time I don't want to hide the strings too much; I think people like the fact that the strings are visible.

Currently working on the entry for holmesian (yes I know it's due today). Debating what to write afterward -- there's the MoSH fic and Chandelier to finish, Call Me Anytime, Soubi-and-Yuiko fic, Mushishi fic, Death Note where I try to actually write like a sociopath. Leaning toward this last one. Further down the line there's the multi-chapter Hunter x Hunter; I think I need to start this in a month when I'm not doing anything else, fandom-wise (February?).

Doesn't this sound like a yaoi manga?

"In the beginning of the book, Bess and Fess are twins, male and female. Bess marries a doctor and they drive cross-country for their honeymoon. Fess goes along with them because he's always wanted to live in San Francisco. On the way, there's a car crash and Bess is killed. To calm the broken-hearted doctor, Fess proposes that he become Bess and the two of them live as man and wife. This pleases Fess because he's always wanted to marry a doctor, and the doctor because he's always liked Fess better anyhow.

"When Fess and the doctor are in public, Fess is called Bess. When they're alone, he's Fess again because the doctor knows he's not really Bess. In public, Fess is she, in private, he's he, unless the doctor is kidding him and calling him she in private. The same goes for Fess's mother because she knows Bess is Fess, too."

"Does it ever occur to you to reject a manuscript on the grounds it's ridiculous?" Ned asks.

From A Bigamist's Daughter by Alice McDermott. What's disturbing isn't the book as such but reviews on the back that say things like "McDermott's novels are like family albums, each scene hazy with the faded light of history, nostalgic as faded Polaroids." Is the reviewer READING THE SAME BOOK I AM READING? The one where the main character automatically dismisses ugly people, imagines everyone naked, is furious at her mother for changing her haircut? I picked up this book after reading Child of My Heart and wondering if no one else thought it was creepy that the main character in that book could accidentally let a child die and not feel remorse. All the reviews said things like it was a touching and poignant view of childhood. So I wondered, am I hallucinating the fact that the author is a well-adjusted sociopath?

Judging from this book the answer is NO. A Bigamist's Daughter is in some ways a weaker novel (there are more observations that feel like the author's assigned to the character -- it's not as seamless as Child of My Heart) but it is more helpful in this regard, since the story does not just revolve around one sociopath, it is about another (the main character's father).

Do I Recommend This Book: It's fascinating, full of unexpected detail and a strange clarity, but the characters are unlikeable. Fun at first but the longer it goes on the more tedious it becomes, and I say this as someone who enjoys reading about sociopaths.

By the way, I realized where my attraction to sociopaths -- in the abstract -- comes from. I'm always seeking acknowledgment, and sociopaths are the ultimate in withholding it. ^^; Well, it's not like I'm alone in this. (Subdee, did your parents not love you enough as a child? Some of you may be asking. (Actually, I doubt anyone is.) No, no, my parents loved me plenty. But they had high standards. Not for us, for my brother and me -- us they loved unconditionally -- but for themselves. Children pick up on these things.)

And while I am baring my soul to the world, here's a meme I've wanted to do for a long, long time, but didn't because I thought it would be arrogant:

Introduce Yourself! Tell me
1. Something about yourself,
2. Where you met me,
3. Why you friended me or vice versa,
4. What kind of entries you enjoy seeing here, and
5. What you wish I would post more of.

Posting this meme is like admitting that there are people on my friendlist I don't know personally. XD; it's true, but I didn't want to admit it because I wanted to live in a happy imaginary place where I am completely approachable and read everyone's journals and always reply promptly to comments. So please, just...fill out the meme. ^^; Unless you'd rather not.

Small linkblog: Livejournal Etiquette. Maybe we should write a guide to behavior. And then we could sell it for lots of money (built-in audience -- 2 million and counting!) and everyone could go back to doing exactly what they'd been doing before. XD. Anyway, this is hilarious though I obviously don't agree with the rule on introductions. Sometimes it's hard to come up with something worthy to say, and people who don't comment should be just as welcome to read a journal as people who do. It would also be hypocritical of me to ask for them -- I used to always introduce myself, but lately I haven't always bothered, particularly in cases where the person has a lot of other readers and I am unlikely to be friended back.