Writing

[73Bruin]

As some of you know, I got to fan fiction late. Many of the stories were posted 5 or more years before I read them for the first time and the story reviews and responses were almost as old. I never felt comfortable getting in my two cents, that late in the game.

I have also wondered as the current administrator as to whether I should be posting reviews on stories, I posted.

Any thoughts? Should I review old works and/or works I posted?

[Distracted]

In other words, slow and steady wins the race. We're tortoises, Eireann!

[Eireann]

As some of you know, I got to fan fiction late. Many of the stories were posted 5 or more years before I read them for the first time and the story reviews and responses were almost as old. I never felt comfortable getting in my two cents, that late in the game.

I have also wondered as the current administrator as to whether I should be posting reviews on stories, I posted.

Any thoughts? Should I review old works and/or works I posted?

Not sure why you shouldn't feel entitled to post reviews just because you're doing the posting. As the admin you're wearing a different hat, that's all. Your views are just as valid as anyone else's, after all!

[73Bruin]

I will start posting reviews then. What about older stories; do you still want readers to post reviews of Fur and Feathers (just as an example)?

Any other author's have a viewpoint? I don't know how much effort it would be to add a sentence or two to the Archive lead-in to say that reviews are always welcome regardless of date.

[Eireann]

If you like a story, review it, as far as I'm concerned. I'll admit that I very rarely check mine here, since I assume that anyone likely to enjoy them has already read them and commented (I do wish there was some form of notification, like there is on ff.net) but other people who write stories more in tune with the site's central 'ethos' undoubtedly deserve recognition even for old stories. There are some fabulous tales on here, as well as the new stuff, and they don't age, so why shouldn't the authors get the credit they deserve from a new audience?

[Distracted]

I agree about you having the right to review anything you want to, Bruin, but the author probably won't see it unless you pm them to tell them you did it since we don't have an email notification system in place for reviews. Or if you prefer you can start a thread and comment there so more people can see the review.

[Cap'n Frances]

Eireann,

I'm guilty of not reviewing as often as I should. RS isn't my most preferred ship, but I do enjoy many Malcolm-centric stories (RS or gen), especially yours.

73Bruin,

Like most authors, I really appreciate reviews and I don't see any problem with admins reviewing. I think it's great to get reviews on older stories. I'm also a relative newcomer to fan fiction so I don't have any really old stories. Last week Asso reviewed my two stories on ff.net. Those were posted over a year and a half ago. Getting those made my day. It doesn't work as well here since the author doesn't get an e-mail notification. I like Distracted's idea of starting a thread for the reviews.

Frances

[Transwarp]

Woohoo! Chapter 11 of 'Convicted' is done and submitted!

Maybe a couple or three chapters left, and my Romulan War epic will be over. I think I'll be able to write at a faster pace, now that I can see light at the end of the tunnel. (Of course, it would hardly be possible for me to write at a *slower* pace...)

[Cap'n Frances]

I'm finally home and have access to my computer. Here are some highlights from "Writing 20 Minutes a Day" workshop I attended.

- Commit to writing 20 minutes a day (not counting research). Set a timer and keep writing until it goes off. Hopefully over time you'll start writing for longer periods.

- Writing is hard and scary. Everyone gets rejections. Push yourself to try new things - not everything will be usable. Take risks and experiment. Try meditating for a few minutes before writing.

- Look at where your time goes.

- Write different things on different days. Don't work on the same project every day unless you're on deadline. Prompts are very useful. She recommended the book Naming the World and the Poet and Writers' Magazine website as sources of prompts.

- What can you do in 20 minutes when writing fiction? You could start a new story or write using a prompt. If your working on a project, set a small goal.

- When you are revising, there are three tasks: reading, identifying problems and issues to think about, and acting on issues. To make the most of your time when revising set a goal for the next session and work on something mentally between sessions.

- It helps to have an accountability partner and/or a writing group.

We wrote using prompts in the workshop. I enjoyed that but haven't done it since then. I like to read books on writing, but I rarely do the exercises. When I need something different to work with, I've started doing some of those exercises. I've only done a few so far, but I think they've been helpful.

I also thought Cathy Yardley's book, Writing Every Day, was helpful.

I hope this helps.

Frances

[73Bruin]

In a PM, Capn Francis wanted to know if there was a style manual for Triaxian Silk.

In part this was because of the way, I have been editing stories posted for submission. In some things I have tried to be consistent, but in others especially long running series, I have not. Some of the changes I have tried to include are the following:

1) Two spaces after each sentence to aid readability for old eyes on small mobile devices.
2) The use of em dashes when a speaker (or a character's thoughts) are interrupted by another character or event.
3) Limiting the use of ellipses (and using the 3 dot ... version or the Microsoft special character) to situations where the speaker actually pauses mid speech or mid-thought).
4) Using quoted italics for unspoken thoughts written as speech (i.e. a character talking to him/her self). I document when this is done in the Author's Notes.

I haven't necessarily been consistent on bond speech and non-English speech. Should there be a standard means for showing these (e.g. different fonts)?

I have been doing most of these changes myself, because I know authors submit to multiple sites and I didn't want to add to their burden. I am just thankful for the stories themselves.

Any thoughts?

[Distracted]

Sounds good to me with the possible exception of the italics with quotes for inner thoughts. The convention I've always seen is italics without quotes. That gives you the option of using italics with quotes for bond speech. I haven't seen different fonts used, but that might just be because it adds too much complexity. In my early stories I used italics with double carets instead of quotes for bond speech. Drove the poor editor crazy because unless I spaced things just right, everything inside the carets would disappear when she posted it. I learned my lesson.

[Transwarp]

I use unquoted italics for thoughts, and I use normal text inside asterisks *to represent bond speech*

I had seen the asterisk thing used by another author and I liked it, so of course I had to steal it!

[Cogito]

I'm no writer, but it has always seemed to me that when writing from the point of view of a single character, it should be self-evident that any thoughts expressed are the thoughts of the point-of-view character; I don't see any need for single quotes and italics unless a thought needs special emphasis, or to indicate that these are not merely thoughts of the point-of-view character. Bond-speak in italics seems intuitive and non-intrusive to me.

[Transwarp]

Cogito, you've written stuff. That makes you a writer by my way of reckoning.

The reason I put thoughts in italics is so I can dispense with some of the 'she thought' tags.

Example, without italics:
"I'm not asking her permission, I'm just letting her know," Trip said to Gardner. She may not like it, but I don't care, he thought.

Without the italics, the reader may think it's the narrator's voice until reaching the 'I don't care' part.

Example, with italics:
"I'm not asking her permission, I'm just letting her know," Trip said to Gardner. She may not like it, but I don't care.

The italics tell the reader immediately it's not the narrators voice. I think there's less potential confusion. You can even add 'he thought' with italics to be completely clear:
"I'm not asking her permission, I'm just letting her know," Trip said to Gardner. She may not like it, but I don't care, he thought.

Anyway, that's my approach.

[Distracted]

That's what I usually do as well.