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NightScribe

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Everything posted by NightScribe

  1. Man, I feel really left out, I rarely remember my dreams. Only the once in a while, totally freaky. Way back, I had a dream that all these dead people, Shaun of the Dead types, were EVERYWHERE...and nobody cared. I got home and a couple family members were there and I said, "don't you realize what's going on?" I mean, I had to get past some of these zombie things in my driveway and hallway. Freaked me out for a couple of days. A couple of months later, I had another dream, that I had to barricade myself with supplies in my bathroom because THEY were out there, but I knew I'd be okay in a couple of days. About a month later...the Perisan Gulf war started and the news was showing how people in Israel were creating "safe rooms" in their homes, because of scud missiles. I saw some pics in Time magazine of burnt out tanks and dead Iraqi soldiers, very similar to my dreams. I chalked the whole thing up to being aware of the news coming from that area and subconsciously thinking, we're going to war. Ever since then, every weird dream I have, I'm able to go back and ask, what did I read, hear, see, talk about recently? The pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. A few times, I had dreams that my teeth were crumbling and falling out. Why? I had broken a tooth, needed a crown, expensive. Later, when I had a huge car repair, tooth dream again. The losing teeth represented money concerns, because the first big expense was the crown. I'm so boring and rational with these things.
  2. God, I'm enjoying this! Four new reviews, all raves (and all sequential ID's). And one new negative review from "Hans Gruber". I thought dear Hans, that suave piece of Eurotrash, was dead.
  3. So, I'm on AFF last night, browsing, and I merrily skip over to the Harry Potter archive. Now, who should suddenly appear, but the Queen of Crappy Fics and Duchess of Rave Reviews herself. Here's the best part. A couple of minutes later, our very own StoryJunkie arrived. My God! StoryJunkie, do you realize you had a brush with Craptacular Greatness? How lucky! Well, the Queen of Crap was only on for a half hour or so; didn't post any updates or new reviews. Hmm...wonder what she could have been up to? And hey, lightgoddess, I hope, like me, you've regained the 70 IQ points you lost trying to read that piece of junk. I also sincerely hope you've managed to re-attach your ass after it fell off during the laughing jag you suffered.
  4. NightScribe

    Advice

    Sereanna, Regarding the chapter length. I think it depends. A friend of mine from a hundred years ago used to have an expression when they didn't want a long explanation; "just keep it terse and pithy." That always cracked me up and I tried to write chapters that way. Not terse, necessarily, but short and sweet, stick to the point. It doesn't always serve the best interests of the work, though. I remember reading some really good stories on another site (that author was awesome), but one of them was just one long chapter that never ended and I lost interest. I felt he could have broken it into maybe three or four, there were plenty of opportunities where he could have, but I think he did it as a one-shot challenge. I try to make each chapter a little story in itself, so readers don't drift away, I want them to come back for the next. It's tricky sometimes, you've got to find the right cut off point without losing the integrity of whatever's going on. Which makes me ask, why the hell do we do this to ourselves? We must be masochists.
  5. NightScribe

    Advice

    If people have been reading your stories and digging them, they'll definitely keep an eye out for other works. And as StoryJunkie said, you can keep track of your hits a little better. I initially set out to write a trilogy, but it became a five part saga. Rather than post them all in one story, I've broken it into five separate ones. In my description/synopsis thing, I'd say "prequel to" or "sequel to" the first one. Old readers came back and new ones took a look, I can see the hits have gone up with each story. If I was posting it all as one, the final chapter total would be like sixty chapters or more. I put an author's note in each successive story and say it's a continuation of blah, blah, blah. My first three stories ran about 2,000 words a chapter, maybe 12 or 13 chapters. My fourth installment is a monster. Approximately 5,000 words for most chapters and the final chapter total will be 27. It was a conscious decision, but it's killing me (2-1/2 chapters left to go, thank God!) and possibly killing readers, but no one's complained yet. Still, I don't think I'd ever do it again, people do have short attention spans.
  6. How true. The reviews are so laughable, that it's kind of pathetic. And I've noticed each batch tends to focus on a "theme of the day." Like "wow, great story, update soon!" Then, a couple saying how "beautiful" the story or writing is. My favorite batch, which did make me LMAO, was something like "you'e an amazing writer," "this book is so GOOD" and the creme de la creme...."this is the best story I've read on AFF so far." What, are you 6 yrs old and the only other thing you've read is "See Spot Run?" I agree, whole heartedly. (I loved that "review whore" reference, btw) Well, thanks for weighing in; it's nice to know I'm not crazy (any more than usual)
  7. I've found a rather strange thing going on with a fic and want to put it out for discussion. First, by the synopsis, it looked like another story, so I tried reading (already contacted the admins about that) but that's not what this is about. Every time this person updates, new reviews show up right away, and they all sound the same, but always by 'different' people. Then, I noticed something really weird. Know the ID# assigned to every review? These reviews left, on the same dates, have sequential ID #'s. Every time, between 2 to 4 reviews after each update, boom, boom, boom, one after the other. Come on! Just to compare, I looked for other stories with approximately the same number of reviews. Even if reviews were left on the same day, the numbers are NOT sequential. So, is this person reviewing themself, or am I a suspicious conspiracy freak? Is that a violation of the TOS somehow? BTW, they claim they wrote the story when they were 16, 2 yrs ago and posted it on another site first, but it was removed. But looking at their profile, it shows they joined AFF 2 years ago. I think this is some kid trying to snow people. Any thoughts?
  8. Melody Fate (sorry, I'm a moron when it comes to message boards, haven't taken the time to figure out that quote thing yet) anyhoo.... I find your poll results interesting, the readers vs. writers. Personally, I think the desire, longing, yearning, whatever you want to call it, plays an important role in erotica, and can make the sex, when it happens, read better. Anticipation can be sweetly agonizing. That's my opinion as a reader, not a writer, but maybe I'm in the minority. As for pleasing my readers, (which I hope I'm doing) I don't have a clue what they like or don't, they don't tell me a damn thing, so I guess I'm basically just writing to please myself. My current WIP doesn't have as much sex as previous fics, but people keep hitting it when I post. At least I haven't gotten a slew of "this is boring, you suck" reviews, so I'm keepin' the faith and I keep on truckin'.
  9. I agree, the sex scenes should be as often as the author chooses. I believe in erotica, those scenes are a part of the plot, enchancing and/or augmenting the relationship between the characters. For nothing but sex, sex, sex, there's PWP; there is a difference between the two.
  10. Yes, I have experienced this, too, a few times. It's frustrating as all hell; I refer to it as a funk. One time, I was working on a very angsty story and was bringing myself down, I ended up in a funk for 3 weeks where I couldn't work on it anymore. Instead, I wrote a short, humorous story I'd been thinking about tackling later. It was a good change of pace and kept the creative juices flowing. I also think if I take a hiatus, I won't be able to get back to it, too lazy, but I eventually get back in the swing. Although I prefer typing the story out, I might slow the pace down and just keep a pen and notepad nearby and jot things down as they come to me, even at work. Maybe I'll look over my outline (if I have one) or write a synopsis for the chapter I'm stuck on. What I hate, and I'm experiencing it now, is going along great on a chapter, taking a break to eat, answer the phone or whatever, and then losing all motivation. Sometimes I've just slogged through, writing what I think is a totally crappy chapter and posting it, then go back two weeks later and print it out and read it and find it turned out okay. One day, I cranked out over 5,000 words in 2-1/2 hours and it only needed a little polishing. I was on such a high, I couldn't wait to tackle the next chapter the next day. Next day, I sat in front of the computer for probably close to ten hours and only came up with about 500 words. I was ready to kill myself; another funk had set in. My muse can be quite devious sometimes.
  11. NightScribe

    Inspiration

    Early Stephen King; the way his characters thought and spoke were "every man" and accessible. "The Dead Zone" is my personal favorite Moliere, Beaumarchais, Goethe and Boccaccio; sly humor, political/class satire, bedroom farce, ribald humor, they prove that it wasn't invented in the 20th century. Hasek; absurdist Czech humor at its best, "The Good Soldier Svejk" is the forerunner of Forest Gump, but with more racy humor, and decidedly anti-military Nabokov; "Laughter in the Dark" is a classic in my opinion, but "Lolita" is beautiful in its lyricism, it reads like a poem sometimes. Clever, funny, heartbreaking. His use of metaphor, his complete lack of graphically describing Humbert's molestation of the title character, and his ability to dupe readers into thinking a pedophile is kind of an okay guy, pure genius. Astounding. Makes you think. Shows the power of well executed first person narrative; we initially feel sorry for the guy, then remember he needs be strung up.
  12. Since it's been a while since I've worked on an original story, I must step into the way-back machine and try to remember. I seem to recall it starting with being inspired by something; usually I'd read something or see a movie and say "Jesus, what crap! I can write better than that!" So I'd start thinking. I started to plan a novel by thinking in general terms, what's the genre, need good guys/bad guys, and what's going to happen, what's this about? Then I started with the "stream of consciousness" kind of thought. I'm a very visual writer, I see the stuff in my head as if it were a film. I remember thinking over little scenarios over and over again for six months before I wrote anything down. I also started to write complete sentences, even paragraphs, in my head during those visualizations. Those incidents became so etched in my mind, the chapters were easy to write. After a time, the characters started to grow, kind of on their own; they became more layered and textured. I think once you've got their personalities and motivations, they kind of write themselves into your sub-conscious. I knew a couple of characters so well, if they had a conversation, all I'd have to say to myself was; "OK, person A is going to say........to person B," and I'd be off. The responses and the dialogue wrote themselves, I just went with the flow, like taking dictation. Those are the best days. My one failing was that I never wrote chapters in order. I'd usually have the first chapter and the last, and then some bits in between. I'd write what was possessing my brain at the time. I'd jump from chapter 3 to what would become 15, then to 7, etc. Made it difficult to ask friends to read when they're asking for chapter 4 and I'm like, dude, I don't write that way. One good thing about this site is you have to write in order, so that's helped with my discipline. (Thanks AFF).
  13. Cranky Mom Do you browse the entire site, or are you more specific in what you like to read (anime, LotR, or whatever)? I can say that the HP section is humming along, lots of new stories and people updating WIP's, myself included. I just checked the books section, too, and there's new posts there as well. Could be that during the down time people got lazy and need a boot in the bum to get motivated; have you considered posting a challenge in a category you really like? Or e-mail an author and say something like "Hey, now that AFF's back up, I've been looking for updates to that story you were working on." Chances are good the author would appreciate hearing from a fan and if they've moved on to another site, they'd probably tell you were you can find them. Just a thought.
  14. Sorry, Agaib, didn't mean to freak you out. My experience was a total fluke, I mean, what are the odds, that I'd actually find that little toad's story? I, too, am extremely paranoid and I feel the same way about my fics and OC's; they're my family, friends, kids, lovers, whatever. I'm psychotically protective of them.
  15. I'm a cubicle dwelling office grunt in a small ad agency (local businesses, nothing exciting). I'm not on the creative end (thank god). Strangely, I've always sucked at math/numbers and every job I've ever had, from my first PT job as a cashier on, had to do with numbers. I'm a resident cynic, with useless, trivial knowledge who, luckily, has a good sense of humor and can usually come up with a good quip. I like watching baseball (last year was a dream come true!) old movies and reading books that are literary classics that nobody I know has even heard of. I like to meditate; not sit in the lotus position kind of meditate, but just sit and think. Clears the mind, very relaxing. Oh, and I like to write, been doing it a long time, since I was a kid. I can't draw, dance, sing, play a musical instrument, or act. I've tried all of them and have no talent for it, so writing it is.
  16. Wow, I was going to leave a post the other day asking the same question. I mainly write HP fics and when AFF started to get going again, I started posting another and noticed one or two in my sub category. I usually don't read them, I don't want to unintentionally rip someone off, just my quirk. Anyway, I saw a new story posted with a great rating; about a week later, the rating went down and someone left a review, so I read it, then decided to read the story for myself. After a quarter of the way through the first chapter, I said to myself, "this is really familiar." I read a bit more, then said again, "this is really, really familiar. I know this story, I should, I wrote it!" I kept stopping and predicting what would happen next and sure enough, it did. And badly. All four chapters that had been posted were like that. I was furious! Even the OC's name was similar to mine. The links to the TOS weren't working at the time, and I was probably so keyed up, I didn't look in the right place to report it. So, I left a review, naming my story, pointing out about seven things (and not bothering to mention that they also ripped off a little from another of my fics) and saying this isn't a coincidence; if you were inspired by my work, fine, but acknowledge it. Asking permission would have been the decent thing to do as well. That was a Friday night, by noon the next day, the story was gone. I still remember the name of the author and the title of the fic; I check once in a while to see if they've posted anything since. They haven't. Judging by the writing, I think it was some kid who thought they could get away with something. The only thing is, there's lots of other sites out there, they could have just posted someplace else and I'm being plagiarized all over again. I won't put up with that crap; not to my own stories, or anyone else's. Sorry if this came off a bit angry, but that still burns me when I think about it. I certainly can empathize with you.
  17. Melody Fate- Good analogy with the bookstore. I'm sure there are people who might not know the site is back up, and it doesn't even occur to them to check back, having found something else. But I also think that new people will be taking a look and, hopefully, decide to stick around awhile and browse; if they like what they see, they may start posting fics themselves and we'll have good, new authors joining the community. (Man, I sound so Mary Poppins optimistic, and I'm not like this in real life at all. I'm a smart-ass, skeptical cynic with a painfully dry wit. What has this place done to me???)
  18. I write hetero lemons because, as someone else said, I write what I know. I would hate to write a bad slash fic, make a fool of myself, and most importantly, piss off a lot of people who know what they're talking about. One of my quirks, I guess. The trouble is in keeping it interesting, not just coming up with the same old scenario over and over again. My fics always have dry, sarcastic or dark humor and angst to varying degrees. The human psyche fascinates me, but rather than spend all that money and time in med school to become a psychiatrist (and bashed by a certain celebrity), I decided to write instead to explore the inner workings of the mind.
  19. I'm really going out on a limb here, and setting myself up to be flamed, but here goes: A lot of people resist change; they like things the way they are, if ain't broke don't fix it, etc. I think AFF tried to make things better, but it wasn't as seamless a transistion as they had hoped. It happens, so it took more time than they expected. Now, I don't know the average age of AFF authors and readers, but we live in an age where many people expect instant gratification, especially the younger generation, they're just used to it. "What do you mean I can't post? Why hasn't that author updated? I'm here now and I want it now!" It's sad in a way that society as a whole has become like that. We have 24 hour news outlets, e-mail notification on phones, high speed internet, next day delivery of those shoes you've just got to have by tomorrow. Maybe all that immediate satisfaction has reduced the ability to employ a little patience, and there's such a glut of similar outlets that people will move on to get that instant fix. Plus, it's so much easier to bitch and leave, rather than get into a dialogue and ask questions, listen, and make suggestions that could be beneficial to all. (Geez, I'm starting to sound like some liberal arts hippie-sorry about that!) Don't misunderstand, I'm not knocking the younger folks; I love my fast computer, internet, cable and fast shipping as much as the next person, but maybe being a little older also makes me a bit more mellow. The site downtime was a bit of a vacation; an opportunity for me to think, get started on a future story, take a break from a story in progress and go back to it with fresh thoughts and renewed zeal. Of course, I could be totally wrong about all this and just talking crazy.
  20. StoryJunkie, I liked that e-mail story, and here's why. I was halfway through a fic around the time the site started having trouble, but it was the one story where I was getting really good feedback. I was able to squeeze in the last chapters before the site went down again and no one could leave reviews. Not too long ago, I thought, hmmm, should I e-mail those people and ask "did you know the site's up and running again? Did you get a chance to read the finale? What did you think? Satisfied or disappointed with the outcome?" I haven't heard anything since I completed it, and it is a bit of a bummer, maybe people got tired of waiting and left, or they just don't care to comment. Hopefully, someone will come along eventually and say one way or the other.
  21. I think you're right when it comes to reviews being our "payment". I really craved reviews when I first started out and barely got any, which made me ask myself, "should I continue?" Two scenarios usually happen when I post my fics; after the first chapter or two are up, I may get one or two people saying "sounds interesting, can't wait for more," or I'll get one or two after the story is completed with something like "really enjoyed your fic, thanks for sharing." A friend of mine had pointed out that people may not be able to articulate exactly what they liked or didn't like about a fic and might not review for that reason. I admit, I'm pretty tough on myself, and will say "geez, this chapter is shit", but when it comes to leaving reviews for others, I try to comment on a lot of the things you mentioned; characterization, action, pacing, etc. I did that recently and the author replied, and they weren't bent out of shape over it at all. They explained why they were doing what they were doing; as a reader, if I lose interest, I lose interest, but I certainly won't lambast them for carrying on in the way they wish with the story they want to tell. As writers, we can always try, as you suggested, to nudge people into giving constructive feedback, but it still may not have the desired results. And I think some authors don't want to come across as "begging" for reviews (and I've seen people rant about how much they hate beggars). Personally, I've settled in and become accustomed to lack of reviews and go by hits. If I post a new chapter and see the hits remaining consistent, or increasing, I'm satisfied, (unless the rating goes down, then I know I'm in trouble). If someone leaves a review, great, if not...well, that's the way it is, but I realize that attitude won't work for everyone. As a reader, however, I'll continue to leave comments that are thoughtful and politely phrased and hope that it helps a fellow author.
  22. So many good points were brought up here. I have to agree that reviewing is a good way to keep an author around. I think, sometimes, it also depends on what category you're posting in. I really didn't get any feedback with my first three fics; then I posted a Phantom fic and the reviews were wonderful; literate, detailed, positive feedback, where the people explained why they liked the story. Added benefit; I saw more hits to my older HP fics that had been languishing. (I publish under a different name). Whenever I've left a review, I've tried to be encouraging, offering helpful hints/tips, even if the story didn't exactly float my boat. I wonder, too, about the under 18 crowd. I hate to think that adults are churning out such poorly written dreck and leaving "this story sucks" reviews. I have posted on a couple of other sites, but haven't been satisfied with them. They were much smaller communities, which I thought might be an advantage, but it didn't work out that way. I felt the big city stranger moving into Peyton Place; ignored. I eventually deleted from those sites. I don't think the traffic on AFF has dropped off as much as some people think. I never log in if I'm just reading stories, only if I'm posting or editing (and who doesn't keep a copy of their work?! I've got my fics on hard drive, zip disk, and paper. Then again, I started writing 25 yrs ago on a manual Smith Corona typewriter with carbon copies-yeah, I'm old.) The one thing that puzzles me is, I've seen posts to these boards about people still having problems posting chapters. I'm just on a lousy dial-up connection, but everything's been going well for me. I just read the post from the administrator on the main AFF site and they said what I did to myself back in April; they must be tearing their hair out with this thing. But now, all seems well. Hopefully, some of those good authors who left due to frustration and impatience may come back to the neighborhood.
  23. If you are only trying to add additional chapters to a story that hasn't been transferred yet, you can post them to the new active database archive, and just make a notation that it's a carry over; I've seen a few people do that. But if you're trying to edit existing chapters that are only on the read-only archive, unfortunately you have to wait. I've been meaning to clean up some typos on old stories myself. Other than that, I've had no problems uploading chapters to my latest fic in the new HP archive, and I've been doing that since early April and one of my other fics was recently transferred in the book section. There are always other sites, and I've tried posting to them over the last couple of months, but so far, I haven't had the same response as on AFF. If you're looking for instant posting gratification, (and who isn't?) you may want to give another site a shot, but judging from the AFF updates, it looks like they're closing in on completing the file transfers.
  24. NightScribe

    Reviews?

    I rarely receive reviews, and when I first started posting, it was extremely discouraging. Same as some other replies here, I've gotten great ratings, but no comments. I've posted original stories and a few different fanfics and got little or no feedback. I once was so ticked off, I pulled a story (a sequel no less) in a bit of a hissy fit and wouldn't you know it, someone e-mailed wanting to leave a review. I used to ask myself, "if people are hitting it, why aren't they commenting?" I'm halfway through a story now, with over 600 hits, but only 3 comments. I don't care much anymore, I'm used to it, but I think it does contribute to writer "burn out". I'm having a difficult time finishing my current fic, yet I don't want to keep readers (and they're out there) waiting too long. It's a Catch-22. Best advice I ever read, which is common sense, was; "write first and foremost because you love the craft, and consider reviews as a nice bonus." Easier said than done sometimes, but it's good to know I'm not the only one in this situation. Hang in there! BTW, I don't publish as Inkslinger (but maybe I 'll start...and intentionally write crap just to get lots of lousy reviews!)
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