haemorrhaging words

[lobelia321]

Today I wrote 1,700 words on my rl book. And just now I wordcounted 1,660 on my current SGA Eldon/Rodney fic!

Madness. But of the nice sort. Plus I'm only half-way through (the Eldon/Rodney). I know this because, as has been my wont of late, I have been writing within a self-made straitjacket. I've given myself a task: get to the middle of the fic, becoming progressively more objective in pov and formal in speech, and then spiral out again to subjectivity at the end, using the same number of mini-chapters. Make the middle the climax. I'm not quite at the climax yet. And objectivity is hard! I keep cheating.

I also had a bunny about Sheppard falling in love with a wraith and it's not crack. That will come next! Hm, I wonder when I'll finish that Cadman fic? Not to mention, boring!Orli, Draco/Harry/Dudley HP opus, and Desert Prince. Ah, the surfeit! After such drought.

I also had thoughts on tell, show and writing but now I must to bed.

*waves bristles at you all*

Comments

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

good for you! i wrote 2000 words of my novel today! i am feeling well pleased. and i wrote you a para of tell. not quite up to your empyrean standard, but i had to do the washing up. i also shined the sink. lobe, i am apparently trying to be you. do not laugh!

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

2000 words... I think you ought to give me some of yours, otherwise it's not fair. I wrote 3. No, actually 3 was yesterday. Today I wrote maybe 2 sentences!

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

christ duckie, we'll take it in turns, then. i have been rotten, shit-house, fucking awful at writing lately. today was my start! aaaand what do you know, now it's the weekend. time to rest!

so, over to you, then! take her away!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Baby steps! Remember baby steps! 3 is more than none, and 2 is more than zero! And a sentence is more than a word!

You know what I will say, right? I will say: post these sentences. Remember txt fic? 60 characters max? Yours can be a sentence-by-sentence WIP. Okay, I'm getting absurdly excited now. It could be a new literary form! With cliffhangers!

Go on, tell me your sentence. I am curious now.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

No, I really want to finish these fics before I post them But maybe if I started purposeful WIP, that might be good! Like your Boring Orli!

Here is the sentence that took me a day to write. I fear it's not even a very good one:

The light here is clear and unforgiving -- it falls in sharp, flat planes of colour.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I like it. I like weather sentences, and I like the use of geometry here to describe the weather. What were the versions you discarded throughout your day of sentence making?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Where is this paragraph of tell?? I long to read it. Goodness, I have no 'empyrean' standard; um, I'm not even quite sure what empyrean means...

You SHINED THE SINK. 11111

[severusslave.livejournal.com]

The wraith thing sound interesting, my friend!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad you think so! Because, being a rare pairing, it's not likely to get more than 3 1/2 readers. :-) But oh the angst, the pathos and the beauty. I wrote it all this morning in my head. I nearly made myself weep. I'm using the wraith from 'Condemned' and he is to be called 'Ken'.

[severusslave.livejournal.com]

Oh there's a Wraith appreciation lj comm! I've read Wraith slash before.

And he is to be called Ken. HEEE.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Where is this wraith appreciation comm??? Is it on your userprofile??

[severusslave.livejournal.com]

wraithsteve :D

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I've only read one Wraith slash and it was dead hot. Any recs???

[severusslave.livejournal.com]

Not right now, just look around the comm. :)

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I've got this thing at the moment where I really want to HAVE FINISHED the fics I'm writing, and I'm feeling quite agitated about it, particularly as I only wrote about 3 words today. Possibly I should just sit down and bloody WRITE, but then... there's the shopping to do... and stuff.

*suffers time management crisis*

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

i've been sitting around my house all week, and it's been FLAT OUT. the washing up to do! the errands to run! the newspapers to tidy! the emails, the emails! the stuff to look up on the net! the, um, library to go to! the second cup of tea! i've been run ragged and thus, couldn't possibly write a thing.

it's ARSE, isn't it?

maybe we should make a pledge or something. oh duckie, i do feel your pain. i hope you can just sit down and blurt it all out, woosh!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Alexandre Dumas, towards the height of his career fame, had a tribe of minions working for him. He'd tell them 'you, Antoine, write chapter 123, the evil count mounts his horse and leaves for the border; you, Pierre, write chapter 124, the modest maiden is abducted by the evil count and taken to the Italian border; you, Louis, ...' and so forth. Sheldrake, this is what you need!

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes -- that's exactly what I need! Minions!

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

*snorts*

subcontracting fiction. yes, i can see that there's something to be said for that. oh hell yes. bring me lackeys and ammanuensi! bring me eager serfs with pens!

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Well, this weekend has been the least-productive one ever. But it wasn't my fault, I tell you. There was ... shoe-buying! And visitors!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Shoe-buying sounds productive to me! Were they lace-up???

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

They were slip-on. Terribly sensible and dull though.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I have a weird question. Feel free to say no. Would you be interested / willing to beta anything for me?

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Depends. Do you want it done this year? ;)

I actually don't think I'm a very good beta, but yeah, I'd be willing to give it a go. :) And if, if, I ever finish my SGA fic, would you fancy beta-ing for me too?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Yes, this year would be good. I am hoping to finish something within, hm, this year. Yes, definitely this year! Although, given my past record, I wouldn't bank on it. But this is negative thinking and I will not give into it! I want to maintain this roll I'm on and force myself, through tricks and ruses and plot straitjackets, to finish things. I have a 4/5 finished Cadman fic on my hard drive; I will send you that when it's 1/1. And then I will start my wraith fic. This was going to be another experimental quickie but it looks as if it's going to be an experimental longie now, and not even all that experimental but I hope with the experimentation seamlessly woven into the seamless plot and seamless characterisation, yeah right, hah. I am getting quite into it. If you have any beta-ish ideas about the following, they would all be mega-welcome! Esp. as I've only seen up to nr. 11 in series 2, and there may be canon knowledge I don't have.

a) Do wraith have cocks?
b) Do wraith reproduce like mammals? i.e. do they have sex? Or are they more like the iratus bug and do some sort of arthropodic thing?
c) Is there anything in canon that actively contradicts the idea that wraith have long, frog-like, prehensile tongues?
d) Why do wraith have ugly fang-teeth if they eat with their hands?
e) Do both wraith hands feed or only one?
f) Do wraith feed on each other? They do in the Defiant One but is this a human shipwreck scenario, or are they just bestial, or is it a ritual thing that replaces the sex they don't have because they are bugs?
g) What do you think those scars on their face are? Self-inflicted? Beauty spots? Ritual markings? Gills??
h) Are wraith allergic to salt water?
i) If wraith don't have cocks, what do they have (do you think)?
j) Do wraith have arse holes?

There are many, many plot holes in canon!!

Oh, and here's Sheppard with a beard because in my fic he is stranded on an island with a wraith and his hair grows and his beard grows and the wraith's beard grows, too. He will be hippy!wraith!! He is Condemned!wraith and he shall be called Ken.

Which reminds me:

k) Do wraith have names? Other than what Sheppard makes up for them?
l) Why does Sheppard call them Bob and Steve? Are these childhood bullies? Just names that pop into his head? Killed army buddies? His own middle names???
m) Are wraith orcs? Are wraiths dementors? Are wraith vampires?
n) Are you a duck?

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Oh Lobelia, thanks for making me laugh out loud when I was feeling all mopey! (I'm meant to be having a fun night out, but instead actually sitting in my pyjamas in my untidy bedroom, being ill. Everyone else has gone on the fun night out. This is poo.)

These are excellent questions all, and I look forwards to getting my wraithlike teeth into them. :)

I have spent some of today putting together a big list of writing exercises, adapted from or inspired by the things wot I found on the internet. That should keep us going for a while and hopefully other people will join in!

Do you have some sort of list of the styles Queneau uses? I'm thinking some of my exercises will be the scenario repeated in different styles, like yours, and others will be more in the way of prompts: 'write about so-and-so', 'include something or other'. What do you think?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I think a mix is good. Pure Queneau is too much to handle. I have no list; drats, I should have photocopied the table of contents! Let me check what I copied. Wouldn't you know it, I can't find the stupid photocopies now. Grr. Anyway, your combination of styles and prompts just sounds fabulous. Doing only styles is too limited (I found, anyway); it's more fun to have a merry mix.

And you may have noticed that I got so excited by my wraith questions that I went and posted them all over the bloody internet... *g*

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I definitely need to rewatch some SGA, as my memories are fading, and anyway I need to for RESEARCH! But this is what I'm thinking at the moment.

a) I think definitely yes. Probably not the female ones though.

b) I think they have sex, but probably in an insecty sort of way.

c) I was going to say no, but then I read someone's comment about how we've seen their tongues, and i think that's right. But maybe they stretch!

d) I think they're insecty remnants of human teeth. Plus they need them for when they eat human food for amusement and to fool gullible people into doing dastardly deals with them.

e) hmm... don't know. Would have to check all the episodes involving wraith feeding, which I am not going to do. Maybe it's just like being right or left handed.

f) Human shipwreck scenario with added Wraith ruthlessness. Wraithlessness. ha! Maybe wraithlessness is the equivalent of being inhuman. "Ooh," they say. "You're wraithless, you are! Eating your mum and dad like that!"

g) I think they're born like that - I always thought they looked like gills, although that makes little sense.

h) I don't think there's any evidence for or against.

i) No, I still think they have cocks. Or vaginas. Maybe both!

j) yes.

Ken the wraith!! :) He won't be able to do the silly elf-braidy stuff and there will be no shampoo to make his hair silky and soft. Ha!

k) Hmm... tricky one. There doesn't seem to be any evidence for it. Maybe they don't feel they need them, what with the hive life and all.

l) I like the childhood bullies idea. But I think it's just Sheppard being Very Very Silly, which is how I like him. I don't know if you've seen the one where he goes on about clowns yet?

m) Definite signs of all three, what with them being sort of corrupted Ancients, and apt to start sucking your life out, and so on and so forth. Ok, they don't actually kiss or bite, but maybe they kiss and bite with their hands. Hmm. Hands must be terribly sensitive. I bet they use expensive moisturiser.

n) sometimes.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

What delightful answers!!!!!!!!! Hm, why do I not have a wraith icon? That would be because I've been to busy fantasising about wraith angst and hot steamy wraith sex with John Sheppard.

I think definitely yes. Probably not the female ones though.
Bwuahahha. Yes, not the female ones, then. But if they have bug sex, what do they need the cocks for? I mean, do bees have penises? omg, I need to do more arthropod research. And don't hive arthropods just have a few drones who have sex with the queens and then they die but all the rest are neuter worker bees?


I have not seen Sheppard talking about clowns! Yet!

Yes, and that is a fantastic idea. I bet they do things with their hands. I bet their palms are all sensitive and orificial. *swoons a little*

Shit. I'm trying to remember whether we see wraith tongue. Because by now it is absolutely essential that Ken the Wraith have a prehensile tongue. For all the hot steamy sex with Sheppard.

"Ooh," they say. "You're wraithless, you are! Eating your mum and dad like that!"
*shrieks* Oh yes, wraithless!!! But do they have mums and dads?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Or do you think this could ruin our friendship?

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Ha! We will never speak again!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I remembered that I once betaed a fic of yours and we are still friends now so it will probably be okay. Anyway, we must see this as a Mutual Support Activity, part of our Mutual Support to Start Writing Again Masterplan of the Universe. No, really, we need to encourage each other. :-)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

OT: You know this screen saver thing you have for Firefox? I have a window that opens when I first open Firefox and it asks 'resume session?' But when I clicked 'yes', it took me to a session that was a few days old. What did I do wrong? Is this what you have?

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

What I have is Session Saver, and no -- it should just restore everything automatically, without asking you anything. But I suppose you might have it on a different setting, or something. In case we're not talking about the same thing, the link to download the extension is here.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This is clearly the one I want -- we were not talking about the same thing, it turns out; I'd never visited that page before.

Oh, and I've been slowly and inexorably sucked into del.ici.ous... Any hints on how to manage one's tags?? I've been copying some links from your own recs to hurry things along. I'm still very behind.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Hm, no. I just opened Firefox and it still persisted in asking me did I want to resume the session. Hm.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I have now abandoned the notion of using tabs as I again managed to close down an entire session. I am now saving everything to del.icio.us and calling it 'What I plan to read' with its own special tag. At least there it's safe. Plus, it's accessible from anywhere.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Bah! I always get very annoyed when technology refuses to do the things I say it's going to do. Humph.

But you're probably right - del.icio.us sounds like the way to go for you.