Hey so, I just posted this in the poetry thread, but I'm also gonna paste something here for people who might be interested... See, this semester I am taking a class called small press editing. Basically, we learn how to create a literary magazine from the ground up. That being said, my college has two lit mags. one for masters and one for undergrads. I'm part of the undergrad one. We have two publications, Zaum, which is the print and calls for submissions happen in the fall semester and Zaum xs, which is the online one which takes submissions in the spring semester. I thought I'd bring this up here because we are still open for submissions until march 17th 11:59pm PST. If anyone is interested in submitting, go to zaumpress.net and check the rules and such (but for the love of god, please don't look at the horror that was last years' zaum xs, I'm not sure they knew what they were doing...). Or... ask me about it? (we're looking for poetry, prose, non-fiction and art).
yells, finally getting a few hundred more words down on this fic. I haven't updated in nearly too months and Saturday is an Important Fandom Day for me so
I have some experimental piece I started working on Saturday and @wes scripserat really likes it so I'm continuing. I have no clue what I'm doing with it though.
I enjoyed it! They're respective chess masters in their own worlds and it takes a lot for either of them to be taken by surprise or to have no sway in a situation. Saruman's played that game before, and the way they keep trying to shift the power dynamic at each other and pissing each other off in the meantime is fun. >:)
Omg, thank you. That was basically what I was trying to do, and I don't write that sort of chessmaster character very often so it's sort of tricky, and it's really nice to know I did it at least passing well. xP I'm glad you enjoyed it, when I write bizarre crossover porn I want to write good bizarre crossover porn.
heyyy whoa roma sub porta is you? :D i never, uh, got around to actually reading it but I used to see it around when I kept up with the portal fandom! neat.
Yeah, that was me! =P /is me I guess. Don't worry about not reading it since I never got round to reading half the cool fics in the Portal fandom, but it's weirdly gratifying to know you noticed it. =D I need to write something for it again I just don't know what. Open to prompts I guess!
kintsukins, anyone with a knowledge of technologies please help me out? because what happens after the following story is Frost goes through Auden's memories, and the memories related to their relationship (plus their poly relationship with a third character who hasn't "Graduated" yet) have been suppressed, not deleted. it's a world where people don't have biological bodies anymore, you're transferred to a generic robot body at 12 and to a customized one (if you behave) at 18 or (if you don't behave) anywhere between 19 and 25. The number names are what in line you are to graduate, Auden was First when Sixth/Frost and Twenty-fifth knew him as a Teen. first few paragraphs i owe to @Bel Capricorn Spoiler: The Same "...and then the narrator starts -" and Twenty-fifth clutches their throat as the next word is cut off somewhere inside them. Auden looks uncomfortable. He never agreed with the idea of limiting anyone to a certain number of words per hour, but there's nothing he can do about it. He'd gotten out as soon as he could but his friends... Well, his friends weren't exactly on good terms with the system. It would be at least a few years before Twenty-fifth, at least, could speak unchecked. In the meantime, they just cry silently at the reminder that they did not deserve the respect that was given to so many people other than them, to everyone who had respected the system enough to graduate into an adult body on time. Auden wishes he had something to say, but he knew it would just make things worse. To his surprise, they switch to signing to each other, and he doesn’t understand, because he got out quick enough that he now can speak and he always spoke so little that he never used his up. When they realize he isn’t understanding, Sixth turns to him, and steps closer to him. He presses his fingers against his chest, curling them into the fabric of his clothes. Both of them are still teens, with the wide, blank eyes and thin, veinless fingers of those particular bodies. They look identical, they look like what he looked like a year ago, different only in their clothes. Twenty-fifth wears swirly skirts and fluffy blouses, giving the impression of their being more to them then there is. Sixth wears the same type of trousers and shirts everywhere, and always wears a beanie, though the color of it changes sometimes. It’s an eye-blinding shade of yellow, today. Auden used to be able to tell the difference between them without needing the markers, when they still lived together but something has changed since he got a unique body, taller and thinner than the generic teen one, with eyes with actual irises and hair and the illusion of color in his skin. When Sixth kisses him, his lips are cold and hard, not like he remembers from before. Auden’s lips are more ‘human’ now, they, like the rest of him, now generate heat, and so the difference between him and Sixth is more pronounced now, and something that used to be comforting is now alien. “You’re a stranger, now,” Sixth says. He pulls back very quickly because Auden doesn’t react. “Why did you come back?” “I...”, Auden brings his hand to his mouth. “I... I missed you guys.” Twenty-fifth convulses, and it takes Auden a few moments to realize that they are laughing, a silent laugh because of course they have no words left. She starts signing, and Sixth speaks for her. “You missed us? Why the hell would you miss us? You have all the knowledge you’ve ever wanted, you’re safe now, secure in your own precious little bubble far away from the teens.” Their hands are moving rapidly, fingers twirling into the signs, and it’s almost beautiful. That’s all Auden can seem to focus on, not what Sixth is saying. He shakes his head, “I missed you because...” he can’t think of a reason. He had reasons, he knows he did, there was a reason for this ache he feels whenever he thinks of Sixth and Twenty-fifth. But he can’t remember them. Auden turns and leaves the room as fast as he can. It’s their private room at the House, where he used to live, and he can’t stay here. When he exits the door he starts running and for once he wishes he had a biological body. He’s read somewhere that repetitive motion such as running in a biological body can be a distraction from thoughts. It isn’t in this case, because shells for academics are designed in such a way that thinking and physical motion are separate, apparently because forcing someone to never stop thinking deeply about the mysteries of the universe is good for their mental health. Auden slows to a walk when he’s about halfway between his former Home and the metro station nearby, where he’s confident he won’t see anyone in teen bodies walking around. He doesn’t feel winded, hasn’t felt winded since he upgraded. He gets on the train, looking at the diversity of height and shape and hair color and eye and skin color of the people around him. There aren’t any teens, thank god. It was a mistake, to go back there and to see them. Before their words ran out he had been able to pretend that they were normal. Because they had always been intelligent, and so they were able to have an intelligent discussion. Then Twenty-fifth got cut off and it was a stark reminder of what he has that they don’t, not yet. It was a reminder that the world outside his library and his books is not exactly the greatest place to be, if you’re a child. It will be okay, though. His stop is the next one, and he will be able to go back to his little world, where everything is Good and Knowledge Is The Most Important Thing. It’s going to be okay. ----- He choses the name Frost when he graduates. He chooses to be of slightly shorter than average height, with shoulder length brown hair a relatively pale skin color. He gets into a fight with his technician about his eyes. He wants to keep them a solid color, deliberately destroying the illusion of a biological body. The technician wants to install a false iris. Frost eventually wins, his eyes are solid grey inside his sockets. By pure coincidence he is assigned the Library where Auden works. The point of Academia now is to distract the intellectuals of society from the reality around them, but Frost has managed to avoid having the memory alterations that entails, having originally signed up for engineering work before switching paths after his conversion was done. He finds Auden in the stacks, translating a book of poetry from one unspoken language to another equally useless and unspoken language. Without bothering to speak Frost grabs Auden by the arm and throws him against the wall. The bookless wall, obviously. Auden gets up immediately and turns to face him. “What the hell?” he says, immediately changing his stance to better respond to any future attacks. Still without speaking, Frost comes near him and grabs him by the hair and starts bashing his head against a wall. Auden is so surprised that he doesn’t resist for what is probably a long time. He doesn’t feel that much pain, the repetitive noise is just really annoying. Eventually Auden manages to pull free, and he turns to Frost. “Who are you?” he asks. Frost isn’t surprised at the lack of recognition, he’s upgraded and no longer as alien looking. It’d taken him a while to recognize Auden, that one time he’d visited. He’s still going to pretend to be upset at Auden for not recognizing him, whatever causes him the most emotional duress. “Don’t you remember me, or did they cut that out of your brain, too?” obviously any reference to literal biological brains are purely metaphorical in nature, but it gets his point across. “Sixth?” Auden asks. “You’ve Graduated?” he smiles, his entire countenance changed. “What’s your Name, is Twenty-fifth with you?” Frost stares at him. “What the fuck?” This baffles the other Academic. “I’m really glad to see you, what’s so bad about that?” Frost lets out a frustrated sigh. “You ran.” “You were a teen then. I would think-” he starts, still not getting why Frost is so upset with him. “I apologize in advance,” Frost says suddenly, cutting him off. He quickly jabs the side of Auden’s neck, at the connector wire between his head and the rest of his body. Auden collapses, asleep, probably for the first time since he Graduated, and Frost takes advantage of the couple inches of height he has on him to hold him upright. He looks around, making sure they’re still alone. This is one of the lesser populated libraries, so the chances of someone wandering over here are slim. It’s not just incredible luck that has assigned Frost here, his Engineer body has given him automatic access to much higher level documents, such as the rosters by serial number, not just chosen name, of the various libraries. The nearest computer is Auden’s laptop, a recreation of an ancient model. It’s not the best, but it will do for what Frost is about to do. “Enough technology to make synthetic bodies but not to install bluetooth, apparently,” Frost murmurs, before lowering Auden to the ground, so that he’s slumped against the wall. “Okay, now where is your port...” he then says, unbuttoning the color of his shirt and feeling around Auden’s throat. He finds the opening with his fingers, it’s at the back of his neck. Pulling a wire from his pocket, he connects the laptop to Auden, which automatically opens up a program.
I have an A03 profile, but I write incredibly sporadically. Today I wrote and finished a fic for the first time in ages, so I figured I'd share. I mainly do Homestuck fic at the moment. I miss roleplaying.
Hey, uh, any way some of you guys could read this Homestuck fanfiction and give feedback? If it's not too big of an imposition, of course.
somehow getting 12k words into the story before mentioning that the main character's hair is in a ponytail: ~*~the lifestyle~*~
Pro writers do that too. They just write an inline note ("TODO: mention her ponytail earlier") and continue on. On a later edit pass they'll search for "TODO:" and fix all these things up.
That doesn't work for me. For major changes, I keep a "to edit later" list, but I just can't keep writing a story if I know that it would take two minutes to go back and change the size of the helicopter or something. The fear is that I will forget exactly what and why I wanted to change if I don't write a detailed enough note, so if it takes less time to change the story than to write a note I just go ahead and change the story. It doesn't stop my forward momentum so shrug.
Whatever works with the way your head works, basically. But everyone does this kind of thing, regardless of their minor fix strategy. It's also worth noting that a lot of times, foreshadowing is done in reverse, the previous stuff edited to drop clues.
True, but "fanfic published as you finish a chapter" is a slightly different animal than a single long-consumption manuscript. (And I actually usually juggle my foreshadowing in my head and add it as I write? Huh. Minority apparently.)
Not necessarily minority, a lot of people do that too, but it's common to add or tweak it after the ending is written.
Anyone got any advice on writing casual shapeshifting without it coming across as awkward and out of place? is what I got right now, and I worry. Just in general.
Well, "vomeronasal bulbs" is going to have to get most readers to pull out a medical dictionary, and I'd say that's a thing to avoid.
