cu-kid9

I post all my original work on AFF, but my fanfiction is posted both here and at MediaMiner -although for a while it was just posted here because I was too lazy to bother posting it elsewhere also.

This is the story I noticed it in: Revelations The italics are fine when they fall within a block of text, but I noticed that if it's a whole section of text that is supposed to be italicized it isn't working. I fixed some of it in the first chapter, but I haven't had a chance to see if it's happening in the other chapters. I don't know what to do about the centering.

I was re-reading an old story of mine the other day and, while scanning through it, realized that many of the things that were supposed to be italicized or centered, weren't. Now, when I had originally published the story, all of these things were fine -I know because I'm just a wee bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to how my stories look online. Now, I'm faced with the decision of either going back in to edit every chapter and changing all the html codes so that it will look the way it's supposed to, or leaving it to look sloppy. I've noticed some other strange things: namely \'s before apostrophe's and italics that were definitely not there when I posted a story. Is this a problem that anyone else has come across with stories that have been published for a while?

I may not frequent the forums that often, but I have to say that, having read about the shenanigans in September and what's going on now, I think this is probably the reason why (well, there were others, but this is probably the main one). I agree with NinjaGaijin...a whole bunch of drama -which now, as in the past, seems to amount to Jaxxy having to waste time writing explanations over and over again because different people will all ask the same question. Not to mention having to read through the snarky posts left by those who seem to think they're clever with their concise manipulation of words or wave .html files in people's faces like they're evidence from the Watergate scandal. What is this? Grade school? No wonder I never come to the forums. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and try to read between the lines of people's posts to try to figure out what they're "really" saying -I don't have the time for it and, really, I just don't care. I've managed to make more friends just through AFF itself than through the forums -and that, in and of itself, is what makes me stick with this site. If people have left here, oh well. New people will show up, they always do. This happened in September and, just like then, everyone is acting like the ship's sinking when, in reality, that seems to be the furthest thing from the truth. Even if the site was absolutely perfect, I'm sure someone out there would still see the glass half empty. I, for one, stand with The Lurker; I'm going to hang around AFF because I've been here for over two years and I still haven't found anywhere else I'd rather be. I happen to like the changes that have occurred on the site in the past month. I'm glad that someone finally got the recommended reading to work again (and, really, it's just not that complicated) -it was a long time, and many promises, coming. And I will continue to post here, read here, and recommend people to this site when they ask where they can find good fanfiction. And now, I'm going to go write because that's what I do and because I still feel like AFF is still about me, the author.

I hate to be the one to point this out (or maybe I'm not the first, but I haven't seen it anywhere else), and I'm sure people are going to roll their eyes and say, "Jeez! Don't you have anything better to do?!" and I'm sure all the people who work on the site have far better things to do with their time, but it's been bothering me for the past week and I just had to say something... The "recommended" in "recommended reading" is spelled wrong...on both the authors' profile pages and in the control panels. Please don't hate me for pointing this out! I have this thing about spelling and it's been driving me nuts. I'm sure someone has noticed it and is going to fix it when they get around to it...?

I found this site Common Errors in English, to be really helpful. It has lists and lists of common errors, a list of "Non-errors" (things that people keep telling you are incorrect, but really just aren't), and then a list of other resource links at the bottom.

Honestly, I don't like Steak n' Shake's chili/spaghetti...whatever (ChiliMac?). They use too much ketchup or something in their chili. I recommend making your own chili (or finding somewhere that makes good chili) and just cook up some spaghetti to go with it. Even if you don't cook, it's worth it -trust me

It was not so much the cheese that caused strange looks, as much as the spaghetti. I never understood because I know they have Steak and Shakes up here, and I know that restaurant makes a fortune off of chili and spaghetti.

I don't how weird it is, but I can only eat cottage cheese with green olives in it on top of iceberg lettuce. I too, like Big Samurai, eat my chili only with spaghetti (and cheese...must have cheese!). I thought that was normal until I moved up North and my friends looked at me like I was crazy.

There's a lot of this in the Inuyasha fandom as well that has to do with Kikyou bashing. It gets tiring and annoying after a point. I received a review once that said something along the lines of, "Will there be Kikyou bashing? I hate her!" I told the reviewer no, no "bashing" in my story, sorry (I'm not sure they read any more after that...). I'm glad you brought this up, because it's always made me curious. Why hate a character just because of who they pair up with? It makes no sense to me. Also, I've noticed too, that it seems to be only female characters that this hatred is geared toward...hm.

Isn't that kind of the whole point though? I mean art, no matter what form it takes, is all about showing the world your self -no matter if that 'self' takes the form of some hard-ass anime character or a sharp tongued woman with an equally sharp blade. Even if we don't write about things that have personally happened to us, we embed ourselves into the stories we write. Why? Because we write what we know; we pick characters that we can relate to, we put them in situations that we may be familiar with. Take HP, for example (sorry, this came to mind first because I just had this discussion with someone). Sure, Rowling doesn't have experience with going to wizarding school, or casting spells, or driving flying cars; but she's a mother and she writes about children coming of age, and the trials and tribulations they go through growing up -and that is what is so appealing about her books; that, in some way, we can all relate to Harry and his friends because we've all been at that awkward stage at one point in our lives. I think that the characters we write about, no matter if they have spawned from our own imagination or someone else's, all carry a piece of us onto paper. I think a writer bares their soul every time they lay a pen to paper (or whatever), sometimes with the reader being none the wiser. If you write, you perform; there's no getting around it. Finishing a story, poem, whatever, is like the curtain closing on the last act, or the last note fading away, and you wait, with your heart pounding, to see how the audience is going to react. What a rush.

Writing really is addictive -as are checking obsessively compulsively to see if you have any reviews - but my whole thing is there are times when I'm completely stuck on a story, when I can't come up with any more ideas. It's during those times that I take a break and tuck into a really good book...and even when I'm writing away, I'm always engrossed in one, if not two or more, novels. If I couldn't read, I wouldn't learn...

I would have to choose reading, hands-down, on this one. I agree with Demosthenes that reading others' works will always bring me more enjoyment. Also, like redsliver, I draw, so my bursts of needing to be creative could be channeled in that direction.

My characters tend to spawn from people in my life; not necessarily my protagonists, but definitely the characters that surround them. Recently, and this sounds a little crazy, but I've been starting characters by thinking about the way they would speak. Would they have an accent? How would they say certain words? Would they have phrases that they tend to say all the time? Which leads to questions about where they are from, how they were raised, what kind of personality they have. I think I started doing this because I'm a huge fan of exceedingly well written or clever dialogue. Which leads into the next question about other writers inspire me. Definitely. One good section of dialogue by someone always makes me wish that I could do the same...which inspires me to write more. As for the naming of my characters...I tend to do that while I'm thinking about dialogue. If I'm writing something that is set in current times, sometimes I'll go through a list of names and their meanings to see what would fit. Sometimes a definition will fit, but I don't want their name to start with an E, or I don't like the way it's spelled, or something equally silly, so I'll change it. In one of my stories, it was essential to the plot that the meaning of the character's name fit everything about her.

I agree with this statement. I also think, too, that it's not just your own personal experiences that you use in your writing. I'm in the middle of a story where the main character's ex is abusive and crazy. I don't, personally, have any experience with this -but a good friend of mine does. I've listened to her talk about it enough that, when she read the part with the crazy ex in it, she said it gave her chills because it reminded her of things that had happened to her. Sure, of course it did, because I know how it affects a person now. "Write what you feel," sure, that works; but I think that writers internalize, consciously or subconsciously, the things that go on outside of their personal lives. And, sometimes, they observe the same thing going on over and over -in which case, you could honestly say that you are writing what you know. None of us may have slain or ridden or befriended a dragon, but I'll bet that I've read enough about doing all of those things that I could write about it (not well, mind you, but I'll bet I could). Or maybe I'm taking this too literally, too. Besides, I think writing is about 10% fact and 90% imagination anyway.

I agree that even if the review doesn't insult the author, it can still cause a strong, negative reaction. However, if we defined a flame according to the author's reaction, then are all of the "fanbrats" (I love that term, btw), who get into a tissy by con-crit, correct in saying that they're being flamed? I think that, even if the review is meant to be constructive, it's more of a blow to the ego than anything else. Reviewers walk on eggshells sometimes trying to leave reviews that are helpfully constructive -which is a real shame. I find flames amusing more than anything else. These people have just taken time out of their lives to not only read what I wrote, but also to tell me just how much I suck. How am I not the winner here? I found this great quote the other day about con-crit: "Being critical is easy, and offering critcism seems easier still. Yet contructive criticism -the more refined and effective brand of critical feedback- is like an art." -Jamie Walters

I understand the need to clean up and make more space, but I'm sure I've posted within the last three months (four at the most). I haven't been active here in awhile, but it certainly hasn't been a year. Was this year based off of last post made, or number of posts made within a year? I really don't mean to sound rude about it, but I was a little discouraged (and irritated, I'll admit) when I tried to log on and found that I had to create a new account.