30 Days Of Fan Fiction: Day 24 and Day 25

[vilakins]

OK, I'll post both places and come back later to delete any duplicates when I import. :-) Day 26 will appear this evening.

24 – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a beta horror story or dream story?

Just the one if it's not so short I don't bother - the excellent astrogirl2 who is kind enough to do it despite no longer being in my main fandom. I'm not sure who else I'd turn to.

And as LJ wasn't up last night (and cross-posting from DW still isn't working) another question:

25 – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?

No, no, no, and yes! OK, Mozart or Bach would be fine but just about any other noise, especially songs with lyrics, conversation, or Greg watching TV in the next room (this is OK if I close the door) short-circuits the word-handling part of my brain.

Rest of the questions

26 – What is the oddest (or most fun) thing you've had to research for a fic?

27 – Where is your favourite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

29 – What is your current project or projects?

30 – Do you have a favourite fic you've written? What makes it your favourite? And don't forget to give us a link!

Comments

[mab_browne]

Listening to music can give me ideas or put me in the mood to write, but I can't write and listen to music at the same time. Music should have attention paid to it, and so should writing, and I can't do both at the same time. :-)

[vilakins]

Very much how I feel. It takes over my brain and doesn't leave a lot of room for word-type thinking.

[corvuscornix]

I'm glad that you decided to go through the trouble of double-posting. :-)

I often have certain songs or music that are intimately associated with stories or scenes in them, but this is from listening to music during the times that I'm thinking of them without writing (e.g. on the bus, or while taking a walk.) I have sometimes played such already "connected" music while writing (particularly for my original fiction), but nowadays I mostly tend to prefer silence too.

Then of course there are the songs that become little private fanvids every time I hear them - for some reason, a number of songs by The Postal Service have become Vila-songs for me, for example - but I suppose that's a different thing, really. :-)

[vilakins]

Quite a few songs remind me of Vila, but I only ever used one in a story because it came to me while I was driving and listening to the song. It's called "How Many?"and is here on LJ and also on DW (which is also being worryingly slow).

BTW I'm reading a book at the moment which may interest you. It's called "Among Others" by Jo Walton, and is about a 15-year-old girl, a very talented and lonely girl who takes refuge in science fiction. That alone is enough to recommend it, but she's at a boarding school with the house system I described to you, gold stars/house points and order marks like so many, though her one has a mean system where the order marks cancel out a lot of house points. Ours were one-to-one.

There's more to it than that as there's a hint of fantasy and past events only gradually coming out. I'm a quarter in and really enjoying it. I also want to read or reread a lot of the books she mentions. :-P

[corvuscornix]

Aw, that's so sad. And I suppose Vila really has had to walk down a bloody great number of roads if you count every time starting over in some new place. :-(

I've never used a song as directly in a story like that though. Mostly the story/scene comes first and the song gets associated with it after, I think. Though sometimes it's more general than that, like with the Postal Service where I think it's the overall feeling, the mix of humour and resignation that reminds me of Vila, and then I start to fit the lyrics afterward (So Sleeping In becomes my "Vila is the only sane one on that ship"-song, This Place is a Prison is the brings-me-to-tears S3/S4 one, luckily weighed up by We Will Become Silhouettes which obviously must be an ode to bad special effects. ;-)

That sounds really interesting! It's certainly not often you see those things combined in fiction. Thanks, I'll definitely check it out!

[vilakins]

I've used the overall feeling in a couple of fics, like Spider Noone one which has the lyrics at the end. I doubt you've read it because it's PGP but it ends in hope. I do try to go for that. :-)

"This place is a prison" is so very Vila!

The girl Mori reminds me of me in so many ways (except that my class clownery helped make friends). The school's very like the ones I went to in its rigidity, but I am so glad mine didn't have communal showers and doorless toilets. I'd have refused to go there if that had been the case. [now has memories of sneaking out to buy illegal fish & chips]

I hope you read it as I'd love to discuss it. I also keep noting down books to read or reread, esp ones I read at her age and have forgotten enough to enjoy again.

[corvuscornix]

It is, isn't it! That's actually one example where my feelings for a character have changed how I feel about a song, rather than the other way around - that song wasn't nearly as heart-wrenching before I started to associate it with Vila. (it also tries to tempt me into learning to make fanvids - I have to remind myself quite sternly of why I do not need to learn an entire new art form to distract me from writing.)

I've placed an order for the book, though I suspect you'll have finished it long before I get it. I'll let you know when I start reading it though!