Avarion

I find it very difficult to come up with a plot of a story. When I feel I have something to say but I'm unable in that moment to channel it into a story, I sit down to write an introspective. I don't concern myself with location or the details of material surroundings; I focus on my thoughts and feelings as though they're the thoughts and feelings of a fictional character, and I write them down. It's not like writing a diary entry which can sometimes feel confessional. I love writing from this kind of first person point of view because I can be absolutely anything I want to be. Some writers prefer to craft characters that are separate from their own motives, but personally I find it much easier to write as if I am somebody else rather than 'planning' a character. As you write from the perspective of a fictional character by using your own thoughts and feelings, you'll become aware of the character's desires; what they want and what they aim for. This is a handy way of developing a plot. If writing about your own thoughts and feelings doesn't work for you, draw your inspiration from people you think are interesting. Even though it's been almost two years since I was at college, I still feel immensely fascinated by my English/philosophy tutor, Anne. My friends and I used to call her 'the Oracle' because she seemed so mysterious and because her intelligence was unfathomable. 'The Virgin Suicides' by Jeffrey Eugenides is written from the perspective of a male adult retelling his youth when he and his friends were mystefied and obsessed with the Lisbon sisters who lived across the street. If you've never read it before, I highly recommend it because the narration is exquisite and the story itself is wonderful. You might be able get a few ideas from it, too.

On anal sex, don't knock it 'til you've tried it And I agree with Melrick's gripe with 'off of'. Very annoying.

I feel free speech ought to be honoured, therefore imposing restrictions on the work of others isn't right as we aren't obliged in any way to read the work of others. If you don't like it, don't look at it. I do think that all writers have a personal responsibility to consider their own limitations and make a conscious decision over what they submit/publish. There are things that I'm not comfortable reading or writing, therefore I avoid work that includes the things I have a distaste for. Their existence, however, doesn't threaten me in any way, nor does it upset me. I firmly disagree with the view that a depiction of something taboo (such as incest, for example) actively encourages it to be performed in real life. Violent video games are not responsible for a person's behaviour, just as fictional scenarios of abuse, rape, etc, are not responsible for a person's behaviour. If the written word was proven to be a slippery slope for rapists or child molesters, then books such as The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold would never have made it to the printers, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita would be banned, and perhaps condemnation would even extend to D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers. The slippery slope does not lie with the mental instability of perverts and the depraved, it lies with censorship. How long would it be before material that merely suggests or makes subtle hints is subject to the tyranny of censorship? More time should be spent dealing with the real perpitrators of crime rather than cracking the whip on harmless publications.

Just a quick bump to say that chapter 2 of Flux has now been uploaded. It took quite some time to write so it's fairly long. I'm just about to get cracking on chapter 3, so I hope any B/V fans out there will take the time to sample my work.

My view of religion can be summarised thus: Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience. - Christopher Hitchens, 'God is Not Great' Organised religions are utterly dehumanising and such outdated dogma deserves no place in a 21st century world.

I used to work at my local convenience store and the first few weeks were fun because the people I worked with were relaxed and good to be around, but after a while even their good company wasn't enough to keep me from coming home at night in a foul mood, sometimes on the verge of tears. Customers drove me absolutely insane. I don't know why common sense is called 'common' because it appears to be completely absent in about 85% of people. Good manners and courtesy are also absent in the same percentage. I remember a guy came in once with a backpack slung over one shoulder, and as he turned he knocked a jar of sauce off a shelf. The glass smashed, sauce went everywhere, and the shop was really busy. He muttered 'oh sorry' but didn't bother to offer to help clean up, or even pay for it. At the time I was on shift with just one other person, and she was swamped on the tills, and everybody in the queue could see I had to deal with the mess because glass isn't exactly the safest thing to leave broken on the floor. Yet people had the nerve to glare at me, cross their arms, roll their eyes and huff as I was cleaning. Another time when the shop was incredibly busy a man was absolutely adamant I'd taken a £20 note from him and argued with me for about 10 minutes, holding everyone else up, even though I knew he'd given me a fiver. My position on tills was right in view of a CCTV camera, so I actually offered to replay the footage to prove to him that I was right, but he slunk off for me to deal with everyone else. When the shop went quiet, he came back in and said 'sorry, I gave you a fiver, the £20 was in my pocket'. I only worked there for about a year and a half but I never, ever want to work in retail ever again. Some people are convinced the guy or girl stood behind the counter is a robot with no life outside of work, no thoughts or feelings, so they hurl all kinds of abuse with no remorse and think they can get away with murder. Nobody deserves to be treated with such disrespect or indignity. I remember all the times I'd just signed onto my till, with only two £5 notes and a £10, and somebody would pay for a pack of Polos or chewing gum with a £20 and not even bother to apologise for the inconvenience it caused me. I think I've lost what little faith I had in people after working there...!

Song lyrics can work if they are used sparingly and carefully placed within the story to complement the plot. Too many writers are in the habit of writing a few paragraphs then interrupting the flow of their work with an entire verse from a song. No doubt some people enjoy reading this style of writing but I think it feels like a lazy way of narrating a story. Personally I would avoid using verses and instead use a few choice lines from a song that can be used to accent your work, placing them at crucial stages of the plot rather than peppered around all over the place. Be conscious of timing and read through your drafts to determine if the placement contributes to the flow or hinders it.

Oh - em - gee. I got my first review. Yay! Now, back to vexations... There is nothing worse than having a wedding to attend in a few short weeks with absolutely nothing to wear. I have scoured the shops of Manchester city twice over in the last fortnight and nothing has stood out to me, and believe me I've covered the entire spectrum of fashion; from Harvey Nichols to Oxfam. As you might imagine, I'm getting a bit annoyed. And it doesn't help that every dress I try on makes me look like a sugarplum fairy no matter how plain and boring the dress is. The only dress I really did like (and that didn't make me look hideous) wasn't quite suitable for a wedding. Bit too casual, despite being tremendously cute. I wish I could sew. I'd make my own clothes and give the fashion industry the finger. Damn them for providing such paltry attire. *shakes fist*

Well, so far I only post in the DBZ section and I know it's frequented by a decent sized crowd otherwise I'd have virtually no hits at all. Maybe it is as you said; passing through for the thrill of it without considering the time and effort that goes into producing a fanfiction. Infuriating but even I'm guilty of doing the same thing at one time or another. I think I'll definitely add a good pinch of snark to my A/Ns in future to see if that kick starts some of the lazy readers out there. A most excellent tip on your part! Moving away from my grudge against the hit/review ratio, I am rather annoyed that my holiday request for next Saturday was turned down at work due to that particular date being fully booked But worse things happen at sea. I'll just have to comfort myself with a mound of ice cream with smut-lemon sauce =D

It's occurred to me in recent weeks that I am also quite afraid of plug sockets and turning lights on by the switch on the wall, sometimes resorting to using the handle of a hairbrush or the sole of a shoe to flip the switch instead of my finger.

Does this trend extend across all areas of AFF? I've noticed that much older submissions, especially ones from 2006 and earlier, have quite a lot of reviews, but after a point it all seems to drop off and there are hardly any. It's as though for some odd reason people just aren't interested in commenting anymore and merely skim new submissions.

(I've quickly skimmed the responses but my own reply doesn't relate to them) I do not believe in "God", or any gods, nor do I believe in fairies or the flying spaghetti monster, and all such related objects of fantasy are nonesense, thus I do not see why organisations which uphold them as 'supreme' should have any influence over the state. I don't think it's at all just or proper to give religion any special treatment, and as such I do not agree with faith schools, religious education as a compulsory element of the national curriculum, prayer rooms at the workplace, and so on. No special treatment is given to atheists or agnostics; nobody ever accomodates the non-believers, which is completely unfair. Furthermore, in order to maintain freedom of the press, freedom of expression and free speech, church and state must be separated. Theocratic governments promote censorship in all areas from personal conduct to reading material; consider the United Arab Emirates as a prime example of this kind of censorship. Sodomy, pre-martial sex, cohabitation and criticism of Islam are just some of the things illegal in the UAE. Even Harry Potter books are banned from UAE schools because the story is thought to go against Islamic values.

I've been using my current nickname for a few years; it's just a portmanteau of 'avatar' and 'orion'. Nothing terribly exciting.

Her laughable stints in hospitals and rehab centres are all down to her status as a celebrity, her wealth and the notoriety of her fame. She will never be subjected to the same rules and regulations laid down for the average citizen because she is a "somebody". The nature of her special treatment will prove to be detrimental in the long-term because she keeps escaping the discipline necessary to clean up her act and get back on the straight and narrow, and not only will she continue to suffer from her erratic behaviour but her children will as well, though I daresay they already are. Mass media coverage seems to make her worse because it's obvious she's an attention seeker, but there's no way magazines and newspapers will decide to leave her alone because they are concerned for her welfare. They know pictures and stories of her antics will rake in a profit at the expense of her health and reputation, but to expect a business to care about the fate of a celebrity is utterly naive and futile. Paps love nothing more than derranged members of the glitterati falling out of taxis or crashing their cars or falling over in public drunk. This is the world of celebrity, and it won't change.

Like every other author on AFF, I don't think it's too much to ask for a bit of constructive criticism. Praise would be nice, too. And I don't mean taking the lazy route of submitting a rating and assuming it adequate feedback; I mean taking just a couple of minutes to write something in response. Anything. It doesn't need to be paragraphs long, nor does it need to be fancy in any way. Even a simple 'I really liked it' can provide an immense amount of morale to a writer who still feels a bit unsteady. Even well-established writers deserve at least one review! Isn't it the least they deserve for the time spent working to produce an example of their creativity? Needless to say, I have only submitted two things so far, one being a one-shot and the other a work in progress. Each have received a decent number of hits, but neither have a single review, and together they have only received four votes. Part of me puts my annoyance down to impatience, but the other part puts it down to discourteousness. I've noticed that a lot of good quality fanfictions have lots of hits, some in the high thousands, but only a handful of reviews, whereas poor quality fanfictions have been bombarded with reviews (often negative), and I wonder what suddenly makes readers find the time to submit criticism to a bad writer when they can't take a few moments to do the same for a good writer. Does the mindset of a reader assume that a good writer is inherently aware of their own talent and ability and therefore doesn't require any encouragement or feedback? I do not rank myself as some sort of 'elite' author; I'm unconfident and unsure of my style and ability, and often I find the writing process difficult and turbulent. As a hesitant, shaky writer, a bit of feedback could point me in the right direction. For now, however, I'll hope that my work will generate a few responses as new chapters are uploaded. Maybe a little bit of patience would pay dividends, but it doesn't change the fact that 198 readers (in total) have so far looked at my work. Clearly I don't need to wait for people to take interest... My motivation to write doesn't depend upon reviews, otherwise I wouldn't bother to write in the first place, but I bet my day would be a lot brighter if I logged into my author panel to see someone had left a comment. Hmm...