Status and Support

[panyasan]

Double post, sorry, but this is one of the weirder exchanges I've ever had with someone at ff.net:

Person I've Never Heard Of:

Subject: Hello

Taking story ideas?

Do other people get these? How do you respond? (Did you get one tonight?)

This morning I got the same pm in my mail box of ffnet. Being the e-mailolic that I am, I e-mailed back that I had lots of stories ideas and if he/she wanted to discuss story-ideas with other readers/writers, the best way to do this is to go to one of the forums of sites dedicated to Enterprise fanfic. Like Triaxian Silk.

[Alelou]

Good idea.

My guy ended up leaving a review that probably offered all the ideas he'd wanted to in the first place. I guess it is a compliment if you can get someone thinking about your story enough that they're thinking of all this stuff. (And at least I know he read it!)

I find it's much easier to take in a review in any case.

[Distracted]

Yeah. I suppose I could see Malcolm and Hayes.

I remember starting a fairly well-written Enterprise story featuring a Malcolm/Hoshi pairing that I was really enjoying until the writer decided to pair Trip and Travis. Had to quit reading it. It was just too OOC for me.

I've done a couple of gay relationships in my stories, or at least one (I'm not sure Isis and Gary Seven count as one even if she is morphed into a male body), but it has to flow for me, you know? I can't force it. The "Travis's two baby-mamas" story line kinda followed logically out of the story line where he spent the night with two girls at once.

In the throes of my seasons 5 and 6 writing spree I was begging people for story ideas. Didn't really get very many.

[Cogito]

the best way to do this is to go to one of the forums of sites dedicated to Enterprise fanfic. Like Triaxian Silk.

[Jamieson]

Yeah, I'm the same - have nothing wrong with slash (as others have mentioned, I have a number of gay friends and I'm definitely pro-gay rights), I just don't write it, or really read it most of the time. Has nothing to do with the nature of the type of relationship, it's just that the fandoms I follow and have participated in don't really have slash pairings, at least not with the more prominent characters I tend to focus on. I'm trying to think of long-term slash relationships in shows I've watched in the past, and the only one that comes to mind was from Buffy, and I never actually got into the fandom aspect of that show. In some cases slash pairings have cropped up in stories I'm reading, and if they fit the characters then I'm all for it, but if I don't enjoy het relationships that don't suit the characters, I'm not going to make an exception for slash ones. I don't often seek out OC stories, either, so there's no contribution on that front for a potential slash interest.

As for the random story request - bizarre. I certainly know of people who take requests for friends (and there are charity "auctions" where authors offer up their time to write requested stories for those who donate), and a friend of mind from the Farscape fandom - who happened to be a great writer but was stuck for ideas - asked me for a prompt now and then, but yes, nothing from a complete stranger, especially not out of the blue like that.

[Asso]

I am only concerned with Trip and T'Pol. My obsession with life is to delete with my imagination and that little bit of possible talent that I possess the horrible disfigurement that was done to them on the small screen.
And of course, nothing makes think of them as homosexuals.
Honestly, though, of course, I have nothing against homosexuals (God forbid) and although I am a defender of their rights, (do not you find horrible that, somehow, people can talk about the rights of homosexuals? The very fact that one speaks of that, has something wrong with it, of grim) I can not help but feel every story that describes Trip and T'Pol struggling with unlikely homosexual relationships as a further affront to them.
I get always the impression (hopefully wrong) that those who describe them in this way are not pushed - how to say? - by "noble intentions", by the pure pleasure of writing.

[Alelou]

I don't question the motivation of anyone writing them. There are an awful lot of Malcolm/Trip pairings, and I assume that flows naturally out of how those people interpret the chemistry between those two characters in the show. When they don't utterly dismiss what we have all seen of Trip loving T'Pol, I can sometimes ride along with them and find some enjoyment in the story. Ditto Archer and Trip. Not that I really buy it, but I feel I should try to stretch my perceptions a bit sometimes, and some writers -- Volley, for instance -- make it easier than others. I think I actually have an easier time with those stories than I do when I feel T'Pol just isn't being T'Pol. I tend to part ways with a lot of stories over T'Pol. (Hell, I used to part ways with my beta over T'Pol!) She laughs or cries or puts on a ball gown or impersonates a 50's housewife without a really, really damned good reason and I'm just outta there.

Of course, if the "idea" this guy wanted to give me is anything like the ideas he put in his review, they aren't really story ideas at all. It was just background stuff oriented towards ship models and such. There was no point of conflict and no character development in sight. There was a suggestion of more humans out there, which I find I get as a suggestion fairly often. I guess some readers are genuinely freaked out at Humanity's situation in that story.

[Jamieson]

This morning I got the same pm in my mail box of ffnet. Being the e-mailolic that I am, I e-mailed back that I had lots of stories ideas and if he/she wanted to discuss story-ideas with other readers/writers, the best way to do this is to go to one of the forums of sites dedicated to Enterprise fanfic. Like Triaxian Silk.

I used to frequent a Farscape forum that had just that - a thread dedicated to people posting story ideas that they'd like to see written, but did not have the time/inclination/writing skill to do it justice. They were essentially free-for-alls up for grabs, and potential authors could peruse it and pick one to tackle if they so chose. Most were never chosen, but it was a good place to look around if you were stuck or just wanted to try something new (they could also spark some interesting discussions without the actual story being written).

[Distracted]

What a marvelous idea. I think I'll go start a thread...

[Linda]

Does anyone else go through cycles where you just cannot stop writing and all your writing seems to work, and then... real life elbows its way in and all of a sudden you realize you haven't written a thing in days or weeks and you just can't seem to get back into it no matter how much you put it at the top of your to do list?

[Alelou]

Hell, yes. But if you want it to happen you really have to schedule time with your butt in the chair and nothing but writing to do.

(Speaking as someone who hasn't done that very well, but I do FINALLY have a new chapter going up tomorrow morning.)

[Jamieson]

My real life blew up for years, lol. Now that I've finally got back into writing, I'm doing all that I can to hold on to it. For a long time I was making sure I did a bit of writing in bed before turning in for the night - even if it's just a paragraph or two (although a couple nights I found myself still working away two hours later). I've been remiss about that lately, but I'm going to make it a point to get back into it. I've also been reserving my breaks during my weekend retail job to writing (the weekday lunch is for vidding, since I have my computer handy). This scheduled writing was not something I'd done in the past, but so far it seems to be working out pretty well.

[Alelou]

Finally sat down to do some work on North Star last night and this morning it's all gone. Grrr.

It isn't that I can't recreate it. I'm more concerned with what this indicates about my subconscious level of interest. Apparently I'm just not in the mood to get to Vulcan. (I never did like deserts.)

[Asso]

Evidently it is not only Trip who doesn't have liking for the deserts. Could this mean something?

[Linda]

I have been wanting to write another Star Trek: Enterprise story for awhile but got distracted by writing for a 1950's TV series that is not up on fanfiction.net yet, but has a small following on tumblr. I have sent email to the suport people of fanfiction.net to get that show up. Anyone have any ideas on how to move fanfiction.net to do that? Anyway, the writing for this other show was fun and exciting and flowed fast because I had a couple of readers interested in reading my stories. And it inspired me to work with a story idea for Star Trek: Enterprise which I just finished yesterday. It is great how writing for one thing sparks cross fertilization even though the ideas in these different stories are not really related.