Randomness

[putaro]

English may continue as the "lingua franca" just because it has critical mass. I think there are more non-native English speakers than there are native speakers at this point. The other thing is that English speakers are used to hearing different accents and are relatively tolerant. My Japanese is passable but I still run into situations where I will say something, the person I'm speaking to gives me a big "Huh" and then my wife says exactly the same thing and they understand her. Many Japanese just can't believe that any non-Japanese can speak their language.

[Asso]

For not a native speaker, English is not too difficult to be understood when it is in writing.
It is not easy to be understood when it is spoken.

[Alelou]

Yeah. I ditched the murder mystery idea. It was potentially more marketable but it wasn't what I wanted to write.

I don't know about a mystery being more marketable for you. You have an existing fan base in science fiction, and mentioning your fanfic won't make people scream and run away from you in science fiction publishing. It probably adds to your credibility. In fact, you should probably be publishing more fanfic as you ramp up to publication of the real fic. Feel free to keep in practice by posting anytime... heh heh

My real fic isn't science fiction, but women's fiction -- even so, if I ever resort to self-publishing, I'll probably see if I can grab a reader or two from my current ff readers. (I've even considered whether I should publish under Alelou instead of my real name, though partly that's so I can include hot sex scenes without worrying what the old ladies at the food pantry might say.)

BTW, in English poetry, we also have a tradition of pronouncing that last vowel if it scans better, even if we normally don't pronounce it. (Shakespeare did it as a matter of course. As one of my students gleefully pointed out, "Hey, that's cheating!"). It's not done much in contemporary poetry, of course.

[Distracted]

Good idea about the fanfiction. Unfortunately, I've got to abstain at least until I finish my manuscript. The only reason I'm not done with it yet (after 6 years) is I keep putting it on hold to write fanfiction because I'm craving comments. Fortunately, this board and the limited beta reading I'm doing seem thus far to be serving as an adequate replacement. Except the beta reading is taking more and more of my free time, so I haven't really been writing much of anything recently...

Sigh.

Note to self: Back to page 515 of your manuscript. Nose to the grindstone!

[Kotik]

LOL, If you beta for Eireann, I wonder how you have any free time at all

Alelou, publishing under a pseudonym is always a good idea, if you write stuff that potentially offends people. And a sex scene can offend a lot of people, not only the fundamentalist christian folk. Ok, maybe that's not the best example, as those péople will be offended if you look at them cross-eyed, but I suppose anything "harder" than PG-13 is probably best published under a pseudonym.

[WarpGirl]

I know people who have no religion at all who can get offended if you "look at them cross eyed." My 4th grade teacher for example. Maybe it's best to generalize that as a human trait. Besides crossing your eyes gives migraines.

[Alelou]

Note to self: Back to page 515 of your manuscript. Nose to the grindstone!

Thinking of it that way makes it a lot harder to do. Try to think of it as escaping back to your favorite characters.

Sometimes if I'm struggling with a project I jump to the end -- I think that fear of not knowing what that is sometimes slows me down. Once I've resolved that yes I really do know where I'm going, and I'm satisfied with it, then I can go back and write through the connecting bits fairly quickly.

You can just start posting ff again when you actually have a ms. ready to publish. It's also a nice distraction while you're waiting for feedback on the real stuff.

What Kotik said about Eireann is true! But we're awfully happy to have that much good new fic to read.

[WarpGirl]

I wish writing worked for me like that. I always know the end, but it's *how* I get there that changes along the way. I have to do it in chronilogical order. I would be no good on a movie or tv set.

[Kotik]

What Kotik said about Eireann is true! But we're awfully happy to have that much good new fic to read.

I just want to point out, that this was not meant to be critical. In fact I'm quite happy about Eireann's arrival, even though (s)he (?) makes us look like lazy people It's been a while since the index list on the homepage didn't span 3 months between new submissions. The more the merrier

[WarpGirl]

Okay I know this is probably at the top of the stupidest questions list, but I've been wracking my brain for two days and have no clue who to ask. When that happens I come here! So ff.net has a new feature where you can put an image as a "cover" for your stories. I want to do it! But, I have no clue where to look for images I can use that wouldn't be "stealing" from another person. So where does one go for fancy Avatars and such? I've never had to search for them before. The one I use here, was kindly made for me by dear Misplaced. The one I use on my PC is a stock pic from Microsoft. So how does one get images?

[Alelou]

I doubt you would be willing to compromise your strict moral purity in this matter, but Trek Core is where most Trek images are available. Its fairly long existence (like most fan sites) obviously depends upon the continuing and longstanding indulgence of Star Trek fans by CBS/Paramount. Indeed, your current avatar almost undoubtedly was drawn from a Trek Core screen shot.

Otherwise, all you can really do is look for non-copyright-protected images, request permission to use specific copyrighted images, or draw your own. If you just want to do type treatments, Paint is a free program on most Microsoft computers that works fine. (It works for drawing, too.) That's what I use to create most of my stuff. Since I noticed that new feature I've been enjoying putting up "book covers" for some stories.

[WarpGirl]

Okay, due to my "strict moral purity" (thank you for the beautiful compliment) How does one find non-copywrite-protected images? Thank you for your help!

PS. And I'm not looking for Star Trek images.

[Distracted]

Just do an Internet search, WG. Contact the site manager when you find something you like and get permission to use it.

[Alelou]

You can also look for images "in the public domain" or "copyright-free."

Google has a bunch of books in the public domain. Any illustrations there would be available.

If you buy clip art, that's copyright-free.

[WarpGirl]

Well I am running searches, but the problem is, nothing is marked either way! Very distressing. Maybe I'm just being a ditz, it's been known to happen.