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December 1, 2005.
Wow, over a year without another mind-melting rant from yours truly. My, you kiddies must have been doing something right for the last while. But..someone managed to screw up again. Any ideas who? Well, I'll tell you. It's some of the list owners lately, that are starting to show some rather dangerous elitist trends. I mean, it's one thing to want to have decent quality fics on your site, or your group, and by decent I mean no leetspeak or web abbreviations (I <3 u, or, I want 2 b wit u) , and at least having some kind of formatting so that people can understand it, maybe run it through your own computer's grammar and spell checkers, for sure. I get that.
What pisses me off, is when they start feeling they can dictate what gets posted and what doesn't, in terms of types of fics or storylines. When you submit a fic to a group, and some little ruling council pipes up and says "Well, we just don't feel your fic is good enough for our group, because we're not keen on your storyline.' or 'This just doesn't grab our attention.' that starts to get my goat. I've read some fics on groups or sites like that, and said stories just 'didn't grab me' whatsoever. I felt their characters were OOC, or flat, I felt nothing for them at all. Not to mention sometimes their premise was just...lame, or the whole fic felt rushed, or they ended it in a bad place to leave room for a sequel, where they should have really continued on with another few chapters.
So obviously that council or mod squad doesn't friggin' well know everything there is to know about identifying a good story, now do they? Not to mention I've read fics that were never submitted to these places, either they didn't make the cut, or maybe because the authors perhaps felt a little intimidated by that elitist attitude, yet their stories were awesome, grabbed me from the first paragraph and made me feel for those characters.
Sure, these sites or groups suggest you find a beta reader. But sometimes that's easier said than done. Sure, there are beta readers out there, but finding good ones is rather difficult. Not everyone does the standard format story for a particular fandom or pairing. Look at me. I have a hell of a time finding betas because I do three things. Yaoi, non-standard pairings, and Mpregs. Do you know how hard it is to find a beta reader for a Vegeta/18 fic? Or Vegeta/Piccolo? I'm just saying that this trend towards a small group of people censoring what fics get posted, based on their own personal tastes...well, it just kind of defeats the purpose of that whole freedom one usually can find to express themselves within the realm of fanfiction in the first place. At least for me.
Another thing that pisses me off, in relation to fanfiction, is the older writers. Yeah, I know, after 5 years I could be classed as one of em, but hey, I'm not pulling the same shit I see a lot of em pulling nowadays. I myself can remember back in the day, myself and the other current authors, particularly in the DBZ or GW fandom, went all fangirlish or fanboi-ish with our stuff. Or our grammar was bad, or our stories were basically just PWP. Damn, that was fun. But we didn't get put down by the older writers, they just patiently either shied away from the worst of us, or gave us a little constructive critisism or offered their services as a beta, politely, in a private email. And we, eager budding fanfiction writers that we were, either jumped all over it and used it to make us better writers, or we ignored it, and stayed at the same level, or hell, some even flamed the older ones, and that was pretty much the end of that, I guess, huh?
But the older writers didn't make a point of going onto forums or message boards and spewing about how all the new writers are fangirlish morons, or how there's too many 'craptastic' fics out there. I guess our crowd, those who've spent 5-8 years in the fanfic world just don't remember the patience and consideration we were shown when we started out, therefore they see no need to give it themselves to keep the circle going. Well, I know that not all these writers sitting back on the forums tossing out comments on how crappy new writers are started out frickin' perfect. It's just that lack of patience shown by the other writers who have been at it as long, or longer than I have, which is really starting to work my last nerve, here.
It has been pointed out to me, however, by a fellow author, that commenting like that is sometimes the only way to express dissatisfaction, as there is a definite upswing in the number of new authors that react badly to criticism or suggestions of any sort, flaming people even when they're only trying to help. Well, yeah, it's there, sure. I can remember some from my crowd when I started out that pulled that stunt, too. When they got more than one comment about the same thing, they started taking a look at it and eventually, most did start listening a little. The trick is to be firm, persistant, but polite. Help, without hurting.
Which brings me to yet another rant topic. (Boy, I did wait entirely too long to rant or what? This is like verbal diahreah here...o.O; )
The topic of constructive criticism. I myself have received much, and been very grateful for it, from several sources, and I have three great betas which I love to death. *hugs them*
I've also received some 'constructive' criticism which has been rather 'craptastic' in itself, by authors that seem to consider themselves the be all end all of the fanfiction world, particularly in the area of DBZ fanfiction...
I really don't mind suggestions to help me make a fic read better, by all means, if you are a writer as well, and think there's something I could have done better, please suggest it. But do so nicely.
When you start using words like 'idiotic', 'moronic', 'pathetic' or 'terrible', you are crossing a line drawn in stone. That line divides a bit of constructive criticism, from a flame not-so-cleverly disguised as such.
And that, kiddies, ends the rant on the topic of fanfiction for this year. Unless someone decides to act like a total asshat again and piss me off once more.
So, on to the next topic, Role Play. *Looks around at all the 'Ooh's and 'Aahhh's* o.O;; Who said that?
This rant starts off with the question of you know what I hate, in rp? People who have a profile, or an intro in a chat room that is to die for, this looks like someone you could really have fun with, yet when you actually contact them... *sighs* They're idiots!
Number one, this is role play. It is not the be all end all of my existance. For starters, I have a life away from the keyboard, as my close friends will attest to. I am also a fic writer and fanartist, and I need time to pursue those interests as well. I also enjoy reading everyone else's fanfics, and I'm a bona fide neopets addict, so I'm gonna need at least a couple of hours every day to dedicate just to those interests.
So excuse me if I can't spend 10 hours of my day sitting here role playing with you, okay? If you're looking for someone to role play real-time family life and give you posts within a minute of your posting, for 10-12 hours every day, I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to look somewhere else. The most I have to give you is about 2 hours of my time per day, on average. If I don't have to do anything around the house, or shopping, laundry, or doctors appointments, you might get lucky and get 4 or even 5 in an evening.
Second thing, the concept of rp character relationships. Just because I have given you one of my characters to rp with, and consented to have them in a relationship, that does not give you the right to dictate who I can play with, or whether or not I can show my other characters around and look for play for them too. This is rp. You may have dibs on one of my characters, but me and the rest of my characters are off limits. Don't even think about trying to monopolize me like that.
This list of rules was borrowed from my friend Kyohaku's LJ, I would have asked permission, but I can't find them on most of the time lately ;_;
Quote:
If there is anyone out there interested in actually role playing with me, all I ask is for you to meet these small requirements.
NO...
NO SHORTHAND! r, u, ru, hallow, kthxbai, @, loox, walx, shots u & u dye
NO LEETSPEAK! N0 0n3 w@ntz 2 r33d thyngz l!ke d!z!
NO ONE LINING! *walx up to u and lovs on u*
NO GOD PLAYING! *ur char dies* *ur char moves 2 suchandsuch a place*
NO LECTURES WITHIN POSTS! I do not like being told how Rome was built in a day. Relevance please...
NEVER TELL ME HOW TO PLAY MY OWN CHARACTER! They are that way for a reason! Respect it!
NO INSULTING MY CHARACTERS! If you do not like the choosen character, follow this guide:
Right way: Do you have another character I could look at?
Wrong way: Ur char sux!
YES...
Have a nice grasp on spelling and grammar.
Spell out the words "you" "are" "you are" "to" "too" "two" "at" "walks" "looks" "hello" "okay good bye" "die" "and" etc...
Be patient with me, it sometimes takes me a little to get the right words for the post. Annoy me and I will ignore you.
Please have some idea of what you are looking for before we begin to speak about RP and it's scene. I don't like sitting around for hours wasting time deciding on what to do.
And above all:
Please have fun ^_^
End Quote.
Ways to contact me for rp:
AIM: bishounenjeice
YIM: sinister_naraku, x_naraku_onigumo_x, bishounenjeice, kaibas_mutt_joey, johnnyjosh,x_andromeda_saint_shun_x, coldhearted_master_seto_kaiba |