Desiderius Price

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Yep, I had that same lack of confidence, still do, to a degree. I was very shaky with that first chapter I had posted, very shaky on the nerves. While I’m better, still am.

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Hmm… I generally had good luck with LibreOffice, but then, I typically kept it to one file per chapter, so 50kwords is a bit much. Though, I’m on Gentoo Linux, and I’ve had an unstable build or two of it, so those unstable ones would crash. And anymore, I’m typically using a simple text editor using Latex as a post-processing.

I use the generators as a starting point because my mind doesn’t work well with blank sheets of paper, and the amount of time I fuss over it depends on the size of the character’s role. If I’m filling out a family tree, next to none. But if the character appears in the story with any appreciable role, I do spend time on them. The generators I deal with typically give lists, so it might be 50 names, and I’ll scan the list to see if any of them works, if not, I hit the “refresh” button. For characters with significant story time, I do try to make sure that the names are phonetically different, where possible, because names can mash together to the reader if you’ve got lots of “Jaimie” and “Jaden” and “Joe” and “Joey” and “Josephine” and “Jarred” and “Jefferey” and “Julian”, etc…. I know some people might dis on random generators, but to me, those are just suggestions, not like I’m saying “the next roll of the dice is...”, because it is my character I’m creating. And, as I work with characters, writing them, I’ll frequently change them anyway, adapting them to the circumstances, and how they write out on the story. (As I’m building a world, my DB is a couple of thousand characters, some more thoughtfully considered than others.)

Random name generators help out a lot. (With some selection for balance and having it sound right.)

You know, I kinda like the ocean wildlife, I’m not in the mood to poison those helpless creatures.

Morris was unrelated, a different gossip rumor simply because I don’t like the “I turned on the TV, and what just happened to be on….” type of thing.

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Yep, pretty much the Lori/Dale date (with a mispronunciation ) I threw in the Morris bit so that it was clear that Dale wasn’t the only one being gossiped about. The girls chatting was a good way to get some ofthe rumors back to Dale, and I’m overall happy with that mechanism. (After all, Dale, like most teenagers, cares about his social reputation.) The basketball wasn’t in the original outline! Funny how things occur to me as I’m writing…. Bit more about the embarrassment factor to Dale. His classmates mostly aren’t his friends nor enemies, it’s kinda more of a reflection of his perceived social status, when it’s good, they’re nicer, when it’s bad, they’re meaner, and they will help if it’s in their own better interests. Here’s a though I didn’t consider at the time, the basketball was very likely not cleaned when it went back to the storage rack…. BTW, thanks for the review. - DP

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Ah, so, you’re not into [anal]? Yeah, there’s definitely a difference between criticism and attacks, clit is fine. Genre plays a big role in how fast those reviews come in. While I’d be floored with one with constructive help, and a full book report, a simple “Hey, I like this”, is chicken soup for the muse. - DP

Think you summed it up pretty well. Given the effort that it can take to bring a fic from an idea to prose, the question of is-it-worth-it is there. A review lets the author know that it is being read, and (hopefully) enjoyed. Like you said, I too, am rather introverted, and it took a lot of courage to even start posting, as it feels like I’m posting naked selfies even though they’re just words. And I’ve since found that posting has helped me fill in the missing gaps, forcing me to *finish* the stories, and that’s also been enjoyable. But in the end, the review is gold currency around here. - DP

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She’s currently in the chat, so you can pop in and say Hi to her.

Ages ago, after the first Harry Potter film, I saw the DVD on sale, decided to buy it (thinking I’d give it away as a gift), watched it, and became hooked. Read the books (1-4 at the time), saw the second film, and didn’t really want to wait. I started to stumble into fanfiction, started reading, (initially I thought it was stolen material, as in, hacking JKR’s computer, before I came to understand it). I enjoyed it and kept reading. There was one particular fanfic I wanted more of, but the author wasn’t updating and I grew impatient. Until this point, I hadn’t written anything since my high-school/middle-school days, so I wasn’t very confident, but I wanted it to continue; I picked up the keyboard, started typing. That first fanfic is still posted (not on AFF because I wasn’t aware of AFF at the time, and it also violates the rules here), the sequel is still a WIP (last updated ~5 years ago); and I had even written adult “versions” for chapters of both fics that I’ve never posted. Nowadays, I write original science fiction in a distorted dystopia that might come to pass. I suppose the moral is whatever cracks the ice, gets you to write. For me, it was a nearly abandoned fanfic that I felt the urge to continue, and in the process, I overcame my self doubts. My original stories wouldn’t have been written if it weren’t for breaking the ice a decade and a half ago, playing around in JKR’s sandbox for a while.

DA's been hanging out in the ChatBox a lot, so, you have a good chance in the evenings (Eastern US time).