padme_kenobi: (Kara - My TV Girlfriend)
2009-11-15 12:43 pm
Entry tags:

Musings on writing

New icon! I, uh, thought it suited me. ;)

So, surprisingly, this is a non-fic update, sandwiched in between me doing Saturday chores on Sunday. Believe it or not I actually put down on my to-do list "Update LJ with something other than fic updates" just to prove how pathetic I am. Heh. But I have been writing a lot lately, and as I was saying to [personal profile] trialia the other night, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that I'm not buried neck-deep in papers and essays and assignments and reading and studying for the first time in ... well, since I can remember, really. November has historically been a really shitty month for me creatively due to all the deadlines, such that I have usually been able to get almost no writing done because of school. Obviously, school had to be the focus when I was still attending it, but I'm not gonna lie, it drove me UP THE WALL sometimes when I had to start on the umpteenth paper or whatever instead of writing.

This year I've got none of that, and so my muse has gone into absolute overdrive. Which is AWESOME. :D I whipped out two chapters of Insanity Underrated this past week and another last night, and I am praying to the fic gods that I can continue to use all this free-floating inspiration to push through the rest of the S2 arc and perhaps even into S3. That would be SO awesome, and might even allow me to finish up this fic by the time 2010 rolls around. Which would be more awesome still. Unlikely, perhaps, but awesome. I adore Insanity Underrated, I honestly do, but I don't particularly want to spend almost three years working on it like I have with To Ignite the Stars. Granted, TIS was always going to be a much longer and more ambitious project, and I knew that going in, but it still kind of ticks me off that it will be three years come June 2010 that I started it, and I am not even anywhere CLOSE to being finished. Real life has had a lot to do with that, since various collections of catastrophes have befallen me since June 2007, but still. I've never been able to write fast. It is a slow, painstaking process for me. I wish I could do it faster. >.>

Thoughts on the latest plot arc of Insanity Underrated ... don't click if you haven't yet read Chapters 9-10 )

I began Chapter 11 last night, and wrote exactly 900 words of it before going to bed. In keeping with the unofficial NaNoWriMo theme, my word count since the start of November is 10,024, which, although probably still way behind where I should be if I was actually doing NaNo, is not too bad for me. This is, of course, not counting the work I did on the fic before November - Insanity Underrated is, in total, 29,860 words long right now.

*crosses her fingers* Fic gods willing, I should have more for you guys relatively soon. :)
padme_kenobi: Multishipping rocks! (Stock - Multishipping Rocks)
2009-10-24 08:21 pm
Entry tags:

Why so crazy, BSG fandom? An analysis.*

All righty. I was going to hold my tongue on this. I was going to live and let live. But after some of the things I've seen and heard from fandom over the past few days, I can't help myself. I have to say something, even if it's short-ish, and even if it annoys some people on both sides.

I have to admit that I did not expect this kind of garbage - because that's truly what it is, garbage - from BSG fandom. I am not condemning all of the fandom. I'm sure there are some folks out there who, like me, are merely bemused and a little disgusted by the whole thing. I also need to preface this by saying that by and large, BSG fandom has been one of the most considerate, polite, open-minded, non-wanky fandoms I'm involved in. Maybe I just don't hang out in the wanky parts, or maybe I missed the wank, but either way, consider this: within a week of me starting to participate in SW fandom, I'd had my first flamer/batshit person, while I'd gone over a year in BSG fandom before I encountered anyone even remotely crazy, and said craziness wasn't even directed at me. It has been, for the most part, very refreshing.

The funny thing is, I've actually seen more batshit stuff since the end of the show than I ever did while it was running. And that's what I'd like to address - namely, what the hell happened?

What the hell happened? My theories, under the cut )

Maybe everyone should just become a multishipper, like me! The icon is quite correct: we do complain less, I think.

But I'm not going to make you become a multishipper. Then, I would be forcing my opinion on you - and that's just not kosher, is it? ;)

*Insert requisite disclaimer here about all of the above being merely my opinion, this rant not applying to all BSG fandomers, etc. I have no desire to start even more wank, as should have been made quite clear. :)
padme_kenobi: (Sens - Red)
2009-10-22 11:15 pm
Entry tags:

Re: Tonight's game

Dear Sens,

OH MY GODS.

I WILL BILL YOU FOR THE HEART MEDICATION I NOW REQUIRE.

And I will never, never, never, never lose faith in you guys ever again. Because seriously? After tonight, that would be utterly foolhardy.

Eternal optimism LIVES!

Fuck, I love you so much. Even though you ended up losing.

Adoringly,
Me

*goes to work on the [info]ottawa_senators recap*
padme_kenobi: Natalie in the grass. (Natalie - Grass)
2009-09-15 12:15 am
Entry tags:

Sometimes you're in the loop, and sometimes ...

Well. You're not. ;)

I emerged from a haze induced by working frantically, with barely a break (and that one break was used to put up the next challenge at [info]karastillness), plus toiling away on improvements to my various communities, to find out Patrick Swayze died. Um, wow. This will sound incredibly insensitive, but I hadn't even known he was ill. :( May he rest in peace.

In other news, I continue to fail at updating LJ, getting my stillness comms back onto anything resembling a sensible schedule, posting fic, writing, answering comments and ... well, basically everything. I'll get back on track someday.

I hope.

On the plus side, I have new icons! :D
padme_kenobi: Natalie in the grass. (Natalie - Grass)
2009-09-02 01:55 pm

Plays well with others

So, finally updating again, kind of! Falling off the LJ wagon sucks, but I suppose I've sort of had reason to in the last few days/weeks. My life does seem to be settling down at least somewhat now, though, so I hope that will continue. I think I've earned a bit of quiet, heh.

To address something that's come up in a few PMs and comments from various folks, yes, I have heard about [info]starwarsland, and in all probability I will not be applying or seeking to join. The fact of the matter is, I simply do not need or want another commitment right now, and since the comm is team-based, the chances are high that I would have to produce some kind of fanwork in order to stay a member. I have NO idea when I would find the time for that, since I am just barely keeping up with my regular stuff as it is. (Mind you, a TON of that is catch-up and resetting of schedules from the horrible summer I had, made harder by the fact that I'm working full-time, but even once that's done I'm still not too crazy about taking on something else.)

There are three other issues as well, ones that I need to consider. First is that I will not give up any of the commitments in which I'm currently engaged. I love all of them, and I really want to continue working on my stillness comms, the newsletters, my fics, etc. Ordinarily I have a certain schedule that allows me to accomplish all the tasks I need to for those, and I'm concerned about something else just tipping the load to a point where I can't handle it and it's not fun anymore. DO NOT WANT.

Second is the fact that for many months now, I have had a major fic project on the go in each of my two fandoms, and I am finding it increasingly difficult to focus on anything but those fics when I write. I don't make graphics regularly (i.e. I have to be in the mood, which doesn't happen often) and I don't vid (although it's my ambition this winter to learn, finally). That means that any fanwork-type contribution from me would have to be in the form of fic, and my muses are firmly pointed in the direction of To Ignite the Stars and Insanity Underrated right now. I doubt that chapters of an established fic would be acceptable for the team games. And yet, I can't write anything else. When I try, my mind invariably wanders back to TIS and IU. If I forced myself to write something else, it would turn out crap, and I would not be comfortable sharing it publicly. Again, not exactly a recipe for me to be a good team member! It's for this same reason that I won't be participating in the fall edition of [info]bsgficexchange. Not to give, and not to receive. I had such trouble with my fic submission last time, even though it turned out basically okay, that it took all of the fun out of it for me and I just didn't want to do it anymore. Maybe I'll get back into fic exchanges after I finish Insanity Underrated, and maybe I'll join the Star Wars comm when TIS is done. But until then, nope.

Third and last, I have to think about the future. Obviously my fall will not end up looking like how I thought or hoped it might, which is something that I am still coming to terms with right now. (That's a whole 'nother post on its own, heh.) But there will be certain commitments, like doing the prediction posts and blogging games for [info]ottawa_senators, that will come into play again this fall. There is also NaNoWriMo, in which I'm now hoping to participate. (With a few caveats - see above re me potentially not being able to write anything other than TIS or IU ...) Those things will also take time, time that I need to plan to expend. The good thing is that I won't have school to think about, for the first time in a long LONG time, and so once I arrive home after work, my time will - mostly - be my own to do with as I please, free of essays and papers and reading and such. That's why I can contemplate doing NaNo, where before I would almost certainly not have been able to seeing as many major assignments are due late October-early November. I've made plans for taking on NaNo and devoting more time to the Sens comm, and at the moment, yet another commitment does not fit in. I'm busy enough - just check out my profile for proof! ;)

Unless - and this is absolutely the only situation in which I would consider taking on something else - a certain stillness community focusing on a certain Girlfriend needed a new mod. But I seriously doubt that will happen.

It might seem silly to make a whole new post explaining why I won't be joining a comm, but as I said, it's just something I wanted to address since I've had several folks ask me about it. It's definitely a good thought, and I really appreciate you guys linking me to it and pimping it and so forth. :) But, at this point in time, it's just not for me. I hope those of you who join it have fun, though!

And, alas, I have now run out of time on my lunch break, and must head back to work. So, another friends-locked real life post to come this evening.
padme_kenobi: What am I? WHAT AM I? (Kara - Flame)
2009-08-21 05:06 pm
Entry tags:

Personal canon: it's what's for dinner

(This entry originally posted on August 20th, 2009.)

This post brought to you by LIZ NEEDS TO DISTRACT HERSELF RFN. Because you don't expect to find triggers on [info]hockey of all places, and when you do ... it messes you the fuck up. Oyyyyyyyy.

So! A meme.

This one swiped from [info]albumsontheside.

Pick a character, any character, from one of my fandoms [SW and BSG], and I will give you ten things from my own personal canon about them.

(I'll put up a real life-related post tonight - hell, it's even right here on my to-do list: "POST TO LJ!!!!!" As I said, just had to get this up now.)
padme_kenobi: (Anakin/Padmé - Angels Flying Away)
2009-08-21 05:03 pm
Entry tags:

Top Five

(This entry originally posted on August 19, 2009.)

Okay, I give. Heh.

Stolen from goodness only knows how many folks on my f-list.

Ask me my top 5 of absolutely anything, and I will discuss them in a separate post.

(Something resembling an actual post coming soon. ;))
padme_kenobi: How she shines! (Anakin/Padmé - AtoC Laughter)
2009-08-17 12:19 am
Entry tags:

Epic lulz were indeed had

Arlene: "Please quit being so much more peculiar than you usually are!"

Terry: "Okay ... I'll try to be normally peculiar."

Liz: *... cracks the FUCK up* *spits copious amounts of coffee directly at her laptop because she is laughing so hard*

I just ... yeah, seriously, THIS NEEDS TO BE IMMORTALIZED HERE even if I have to be Spammy McSpamerson to do it. :D Gods but I do love True Blood. Tonight's episode, without being spoilery, was made of EPIC AWESOME WIN, and that show gets more terrific every time I watch it!!!

*cracks up again*
padme_kenobi: It's a HSM world! We're just living in it. (High School Musical World)
2009-08-12 02:19 pm
Entry tags:

Green-eyed monsters

the i-envy-this-about-you meme


Gods only know what anyone would envy about me right now, but why the hell not.
padme_kenobi: I'm singin' in the rain ... (BSG - Athena in the Rain)
2009-06-25 07:33 pm
Entry tags:

RIP Lorena Gale, Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson

I'm almost afraid to ask who's going to shuffle off this mortal coil next! Callous perhaps, but this is a one-two-three punch that's left me quite shocked. I was sad enough about Lorena Gale, who of course played Elosha on BSG, that Farah barely registered. And unfortunately, she in turn will be overshadowed many, many times over by Jackson's death. Talk about a punch to the gut.

All the retrospectives they're now doing on TV are making me feel old. Holy crap. He was certainly a character, but I did like some of his songs - "Thriller" and "Billie Jean" in particular. The minute it came on the news Andrew and I started talking about how this would probably be comparable to when Elvis died, which neither of us were alive for but which we've heard about many times. And then a newsreader said the exact same thing.

I just ... yeah, it feels really unbelievable right now. So much death for one day (though I do know that Gale actually passed on Saturday). May all three of them rest in peace. :(
padme_kenobi: Natalie in the grass. (Natalie - Grass)
2009-06-16 02:49 pm
Entry tags:

This can never, ever be said too often!

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.
padme_kenobi: I missed you. I missed you too. (Kara/Lee - Han & Leia)
2009-06-15 10:04 pm
Entry tags:

Everybody's doing it ...

(NOTE: On LJ there is a poll in this post, but as there doesn't seem to be a poll capability on DW, you'll have to, er, use your imaginations. Heh.)

All righty, enough angst. ;) I'm in the midst of both working on fic and replying to comments, but I've been meaning to put this particular poll up for quite some time, and hey - there's no time like the present, right?

I've seen this on a number of f-list journals, and the basic idea is this: an author takes a fic they've written and basically writes a DVD-style commentary about it. If you've ever listened to the commentary track on a DVD, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. The director (or fic author) discusses why they made the creative choices they did, what inspired a particular scene, what they thought about while filming/writing, etc. There's a movement afoot to write commentaries for fics, and I'm wondering what you guys would think of me doing one (or several). Incredibly, boorishly self-indulgent, or actually somewhat interesting? Below is an informative poll that asks you to decide and, should you vote yes, requests that you pick one or more fics that you'd most like me to provide commentary on.

A few notes with regards to the fics included: 1) I haven't listed either of my works-in-progress. Both Insanity Underrated and the 50-chapter monster are, for the purposes of this exercise, unfortunately off-limits. Because I haven't completed To Ignite the Stars or Insanity Underrated, I have doubts about my ability to reliably comment on them - and in some cases, it would be difficult to do so without mentioning huge spoilers for upcoming plot poins in both. That's not to say I would never write commentaries for these fics, just that I'm not able to do so right now. Maybe in the future! 2) The fics listed in the second part of the poll are the ones I'm willing/able to comment on at the moment. I don't list all the fics I've ever written, partly because ticky-box polls have limited boxes and partly because some of my earlier stuff is so jaw-droppingly bad that I should probably just pull it off the internet altogether. However, if there's a fic not listed here for which you really want to see commentary, do mention it in the comments, and I'll consider it. 3) Commentaries, if I do them, will be posted to [community profile] padmeonpaper and linked back here, so no worries about missing them. The anal part of me just wants to keep everything organized.

Should I do a fic commentary?
Yes, that would be awesome!
No way, self-promotion sucks!

If yes, for which fic would you like to see my commentary?
The Sound of One Hand Clapping (BSG; Lee/Kara)
In Medias Res (BSG; Kara genfic)
Feeling Good (BSG; Lee/Kara)
Insanity Theory (Star Wars; Obi-Wan/Padmé)
The Promise (Star Wars; Anakin/Obi-Wan)
A Hard Bargain (BSG; Sam/Kara)
At Day's End (Star Wars; Obi-Wan/Padmé)
The Jedi's Code (Star Wars; Obi-Wan/Padmé)
Surprise (Star Wars; Anakin/Padmé)
Intrusion (BSG; Lee/Kara)
Like Fine Ambrosia (BSG; Adama/Roslin)
Threaten to Reconcile (BSG; Sam/Kara)
Second Chances (BSG; Lee/Kara)

Any other questions, comments, or other gripes about this exercise? Throw 'em at me in comments and I'll see what I can do. :)
padme_kenobi: My SW longfic, To Ignite the Stars (To Ignite the Stars)
2009-05-29 09:13 pm

Fic: "To Ignite the Stars" (Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Padmé, 50/?)

Title: Flight from Chandrila
Author: [personal profile] padme_kenobi
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Characters/Pairings: Obi-Wan/Padmé, Luke, Leia, others
Word Count: 5,670
Rating: PG
Summary: Now they stood in the interminable line, his wife leaning against him and the twins bickering. It was an utter nightmare.
Author's Notes: As big as the cliffhangers of the last few chapters have been, this one is bigger. Heh. I can only say that there will be a resolution to all of this. Might not be a resolution you guys necessarily like, but I'll try not to leave folks hanging for too much longer. Promise. :) There's also some fluff in here, which may or may not have been inspired by a cracky late-night IMing session between myself and my beta. ;) 'Twas an absolute joy to write. :D

Read it here @ [community profile] padmeonpaper
padme_kenobi: (Writing - Struggle of a Fanfic Writer)
2009-05-29 06:18 pm
Entry tags:

Yay writing rambles!

(I started typing this at work when it was relatively slow this afternoon and Twitter was broken, and I'm now finishing it at home. Heh. I pretty much fail sometimes, heh.)

I've been thinking some more about [info]bsg_bigbang, and I have to say that I am leaning towards not signing up. It would suck on one level because I wouldn't have the fun of participating and seeing my fic made into icons and vids and so forth, but at this point I'm just not sure whether making Insanity Underrated into a [info]bsg_bigbang work would be the best thing for the fic. For one thing, it would delay it being posted until November-ish, when online stuff will not be first and foremost in my mind, and when interest in BSG fics may have dimmed significantly. I don't like to think of the fandom potentially dying, but it's a possibility I need to plan for. And it's not even about the reviews - far from it. If that were the case, I'd have abandoned TIS a long time ago. I just think that posting Insanity Underrated while there is significant continuing interest in BSG fandom would be more fun, and there's better potential for that to be the case now as opposed to in November.

The other thing is that I seem to have at least partially rediscovered my inspiration to write Insanity Underrated. Now, signing up for [info]bsg_bigbang wouldn't necessarily preclude me working on it right now, but it would preclude me posting Chapters 3 and 4 once I've edited them, as well as any future chapters. And I'm not sure whether waiting to post a longfic until it's done is really my style. I did that with The Sound of One Hand Clapping, but that was kind of a special case. I didn't originally intend that to be a longfic, and it wasn't until it was about three-quarters done that I did a word count and realized, "Whoops, I'm going to need to post this in multiple chapters." Insanity Underrated was a multi-chapter longfic from the start, and I never had any illusions that it would be anything else.

I wasn't sure at first why I lost my inspiration to work on it, but that was one of the only reasons I had considered signing up for [info]bsg_bigbang. (The other had to do with the special icons and vids, but I'm sure that if I really want icons from it, I can hit up the lovely folks on my f-list. :D) I thought it might keep me on track as far as writing Insanity Underrated goes, but I'm now starting to realize that a lot of my anxiety towards the fic had to do with a major plot point that's going to come into play in the S2 arc, and whether said plot arc would be believable and true to character. I think it will, so long as I handle it carefully, but it's going to mean a few changes to the canon arc of Season 2. I just hope I can do those well, and that folks will forgive the long period of time between chapter updates. Heh.

As far as To Ignite the Stars is concerned, I posted Chapter 50 last night, so I am just a little proud of myself. I knew it was going to have to go at least 50 chapters length-wise, but what I didn't know was whether I'd be able to keep up my interest in the fic. That's been a problem for me in the past - I don't know how many writing projects I've started and then subsequently abandoned because I lost interest or got bored. With TIS, though, I soon discovered that it was a story I had to tell. I didn't really have a choice as to whether to write it or not; it was going to make its way out regardless. I've learned a lot about myself while working on it, and I'm sure I'll learn even more before it's finished. Ideally, I would like that to be in October, which is another reason that going out for [info]bsg_bigbang might not be the slickest idea. TIS is very important to me, and it tends to try and snatch my attention away just when I'd prefer to be working on something else. It usually succeeds, too - let's just say I have like zero willpower when it comes to that sort of thing. Heh.

Right now I am once again being pulled between two projects, and while Insanity Underrated is currently winning, I don't want to leave TIS un-updated for very long, at least not as long as I'm working my way through the current plot arc. The last chapter ended on a crazy cliffhanger, and even though that was mostly by design, I get the feeling I'll have some very freaked out readers if I don't update soon. ;) It's wonderful to know that they're so wrapped up in the story, though. While the response to To Ignite the Stars has been small, those who read it leave some amazing and very flattering reviews, and although I emphasize again that my world does NOT revolve around comments, it is nonetheless wonderful to know that something in which you've put your heart and soul is being so well-received. Which reminds me, I really need to respond to those comments on the Anonymous Feedback Meme. Yet more proof that I fail, heh.

I have stillness community stuff to do tonight - lots of it - but I will in all probability squeeze some writing in there somewhere. Along with more True Blood. SO glad Andrew and I decided to do a Season 1 rewatch before the S2 premiere on June 14. I LOVE ALAN BALL and I don't care who frakking knows. *grins*
padme_kenobi: My SW longfic, To Ignite the Stars (To Ignite the Stars)
2009-05-26 01:41 pm

Fic: "To Ignite the Stars" (Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Padmé, 49/?)

Thank you, [info]lealynnkenobi, for reminding me! I really am an epic pile of Faily McFailerson sometimes. *headdesk*

Title: Intrusion
Author: [personal profile] padme_kenobi
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Characters/Pairings: Obi-Wan/Padmé, Luke, Leia, Mon Mothma
Word Count: 3,594
Rating: PG
Summary: The Empire’s envoy would find them, and surely they would imprison her family … Luke and Leia, as Force-sensitives, would be taken to Vader, and perhaps to Palpatine himself, with her unborn child sharing that fate as soon as he or she arrived … and Obi-Wan — oh, what would they do to her husband?
Author's Notes: Another short-ish chapter - or, at least, shorter than what you guys are spoiled by accustomed to - and another cliffhanger, heh. Don't shoot me, as there will eventually be a resolution to all this. Promise. ;) I meant to put this up earlier today, as I also meant to answer comments on the last post, but my personal life has sort of gone 'splodey over the past weekend or so and I didn't get a chance until just now. Chapter 50 is almost done, and should follow within the next few days, as will replies to your awesome reviews. :)

Read it here @ [community profile] padmeonpaper
padme_kenobi: (Writing - Struggle of a Fanfic Writer)
2009-05-21 11:55 pm
Entry tags:

*follows her f-list like the sheep that she is*

(Behind in crossposting again. Yeah, I fail at life. *facepalm*)

What the hey, I'll throw my hat into the ring. Honestly not expecting much, but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take! ;)

THE ANONYMOUS WRITING FEEDBACK MEME


(Real post and fic to come later, I promise. And the "sick" mood? I HAVE A COLD, OKAY? ;) *snerk* *pets the mother hens*)
padme_kenobi: I've got it! I mean ... uh, oops ... (Star Wars - Han RotJ Bemused)
2009-05-19 08:49 pm
Entry tags:

Buy one plotbunny, get one absolutely free!

So'm, I haven't posted much over the last few days because there hasn't been much going on in my life worth posting about, other than that I have a slight cold, and I don't think it's necessary for you guys to know the details of that. Heh. ;) My big focus this week, and much of last, has been writing To Ignite the Stars, and trying to push through a pretty major plot arc therein. I seem to have rediscovered my motivation, at least where TIS is concerned, but at the rate I'm writing I'll probably reach the A New Hope part of the fic by the time I'm, oh, 90 or so. *facepalm* I don't know what it is about this particular arc that's causing so much difficulty, especially since I've been visualizing it in my mind for months now.

But, as ever, I am valiantly carrying on. Chapter 49 is basically ready to post; it just needs one last editing go-over with Katie via IM, which we'll probably do in a couple hours or so. I've written 3,472 words of Chapter 50 but haven't yet reached said chapter's "Big Reveal," as it were, so I also need to do that today. I haven't even looked at the Drabble Request Post lately, though I do have a few of those ideas written down and some plans percolating in the old brain. However, as I said, my primary focus is TIS right now and I probably won't turn my attention to the drabbles (or those poor old birthday fics I owe some of you guys) until I'm finished this particular plot arc. I also really need to make a decision about [profile] bsg_bigbang, since said decision will affect what I do with Insanity Underrated and when.

Believe it or not, though, writing is actually not the main point of this post! Well, it is and it isn't, really. A couple of plotbunnies have been distracting me from writing over the last little while and I figure the best way to keep them from doing that is to put them in an LJ post and blab and ramble about them a bit. So, here goes.

Attack of the Plotbunnies! RUN! )

All things being equal, I'll post Chapter 49 of To Ignite the Stars likely tonight or tomorrow, depending on when I can get it edited. The WS fic ... well, I'm hoping to finish it once and for all, and if I do, that'll also be put up asap.

I was going to blather about stillness community stuff too, but I think that's a topic for another, friends locked, post. So I shall leave you folks with this, and head back to writing and watching the hockey game.
padme_kenobi: How she shines! (Star Wars - Luke & Vader ESB Duel)
2009-05-15 11:23 am
Entry tags:

To bang or not to bang; that is the question

Good morning, dear f-list! Hope y'all are having a good day so far, though judging by some of the posts on LJ and tweets on Twitter, it's not going very well for some of you. :( *hugs* I hope it gets better soon!

I've been grappling with a dilemma the past several days, and while it's not really that much of an issue in the grand scheme of things, it has nonetheless been occupying a rather large portion of my brainspace. And since I'm evidently incapable of making a decision for myself without consulting teh intarwebz, I decided to hop on here and ask you guys - particularly the Kara/Lee shippers - about it.

See, there's this really awesome new community on LJ, and it's called [info]bsg_bigbang. The idea is that authors, artists and vidders will sign up, and from May to November the authors will write a 20,000+-word BSG fic. When said fic is complete, it will be posted to that community, and the artists will make special icons from it and the vidders will vid scenes from the fic. Cool cool cool, right? And good for those of us who may need a kick in the pants to finish those AUs languishing around our hard drives.

As most of you probably know, I am the writer of one such AU. I love Insanity Underrated, and I'm excited about and devoted to its plot. The problem? Zero motivation. Part of the issue is that To Ignite the Stars is consuming my motherfrakking LIFE right now, but the other part is ... zero motivation. And I figure that if I signed up for [info]bsg_bigbang, I'd have at least a fighting chance of getting back to work on it due to the guilt complex that will ensue if I didn't finish it in time. (I am good at guilting, yo. Almost as good as Obi-Wan or Lee.) The comm is even offering cheerleaders to each author, and while I have a ready cheerleader/beta reader in Katie, other peer pressure can't hurt, right? I asked the mods if it's okay to use a fic that you've already posted two chapters of, and they said that's fine as long as you hold back all further chapters until the November deadline. And ICONS. And VIDS. Of MY FIC. Seriously, it doesn't get much cooler than that!

So why have I not gotten my ass over there and signed up? Well, first of all because there's always a chance that I'll rediscover my motivation without the help of a fancy-shmancy community. It's certainly happened before, as TIS readers can attest. Plus, there's the fact that if I did sign up for this, Insanity Underrated readers wouldn't get any more chapters of the fic until November. I'd be working on it, I'd be completing chapters, but I wouldn't be able to post them since I would have given first rights to [info]bsg_bigbang. And now to November is a looooooong damned time not to post a fic in which, presumably, you want there to be ongoing interest.

My dilemma is therefore this, f-list: should I sign up for [info]bsg_bigbang? If I did, it would have to be with Insanity Underrated, since monster fic plotbunnies are somewhat difficult to come by. The pros are that I would finish it, and I'd get it iconned and vidded to boot. The cons are that readers would have to wait until November to get the whole thing - but I'd probably finish it in October due to certain, ah, time constraints. ;) At least it would be completed, though, and there wouldn't be any fear that I'd suddenly abandon it.

So. Opinions? Suggestions? Yays, nays? Lemme hear 'em! :D
padme_kenobi: The original and still the best. (Star Wars - Han/Leia ESB Heart)
2009-05-12 12:11 am
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Things to Know if You Follow Me on Twitter

(If you're on my f-list and follow me on Twitter, this DOES NOT apply to you. I'm putting up this post for all the other folks who have chosen to follow me on that marvelous social-networking site. Heh. It's too long for Twitter itself, and as this is the only multi-purpose blog I maintain, it goes here. Under a cut, of course!)

Things to Know if You Follow Me on Twitter )

I'm sure this list makes me sound very standoffish, and honestly, I don't intend it that way. I just want things to be very clear, and I also want to maybe clear up a few questions you might have. Any others that don't appear here? Feel free to ask; anonymous commenting is enabled if you don't have a LiveJournal account. Despite the above, I truly am approachable. :)
padme_kenobi: I write, therefore I am. (Writing - Writer at Heart)
2009-05-11 07:44 pm
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Drabble requests are now ... OPEN!

(I doubt there'll be much interest over here, but since I'm crossposting the last few updates from my LJ, I figured I'd include this.)

Okay. So. I want to make something very clear up front: this is totally, completely and entirely [info]viva_lla_gloria's fault. She posted the drabble request meme on her journal, I was perusing my f-list, I saw it, I commented to request something from her, and so I am now bound by the Meme Gods to do the precise same thing lest they smite me! 'Cause they do so love to smite, y'know. ;)

I am, however, making a couple of significant alterations to the original. If I get smited for that, well, then I guess I get smited. Yaaaaaay masochism!

The first fifteen people to comment in this post get to request a drabble from me. You don't have to repost this in your LJ if you don't want to - just be sure to read the guidelines/caveats below. :)

The aforementioned guidelines/caveats:

1) Fifteen slots rather than the original ten. Because I am generous like that. :D

2) Despite the "drabble" moniker, I reserve the right to transform the drabbles into ficlets depending upon the prompt and the vagaries of my muse. In fact, they probably will be ficlets, since I SUCK at the 100-word-limit thing.

3) My two main fandoms, as most of you probably know, are Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica (2003). Anything else I'd be kinda twitchy about writing, not to mention inexperienced.

4) Things I will not write. Every writer has them, and I am no exception. Anything involving marital infidelity and non-consensual sex I am absolutely not comfortable with, for personal reasons. Similarly, though I'm pretty equal-opportunity when it comes to most BSG pairings, I can't abide Kara/Leoben and Tigh/Caprica Six in a romantic capacity (those damn personal reasons again). Sorry, guys. I'd also shy away from requesting BSG slash, but only because I'm really inexperienced at it. Heh. No real issues with most SW pairings - aside from Qui/Obi, which I'm just sort of "eh" about. I'll say this as well: suggest Dormékin, and I WILL shoot you. Yes. Through your computer screen. With my invisible non-existent gun.

5) Slash is perfectly acceptable set in the SW 'verse.

6) I will write all ratings, from G (K) to NC-17 (MA).

7) If you request Obi-Wan/Padmé - totally legit, by the way - it may be set in the TIS universe, as my brain seems to be incapable of placing O/P in any other context at the moment. Heh.

All drabbles/ficlets will be posted to [community profile] padmeonpaper and linked back here. Just basically my way of keeping things tidy, and there's no need to worry about missing any of them since I'll also comment back to you when your drabble has been posted.

I believe that's it, so ... GO!