Contests and Such~

I've found myself with a desire to enter them lately. I still have a request fic that I need to do, badly, but I haven't had any inspiration for it.

I recently entered a drabble contest on livejournal--I finally started an account there and had a friend explain it to me--and I've also entered a contest on the YGO forums on fanfiction.net. I'm trying very hard to do things that will challenge the type of fiction that I write, because I am interested in developing beyond my expertise (which has always been romance and lemons in general). I'm not bad at action or general fics--I just don't write them. And entering into some of these things will give me no choice but to write something other than what I'm used to.

I think it'll make for a fun experience. I've been writing fanfiction for year; might as well enter a contest or two...

Oh. Right: My computer died.

That's very important.

I thought that for anyone actually giving a damn and reading here that they should know that. A lot of my updates to this blog are going to be in groups, because I actually write down my thoughts for this blog when something spectacular or particularly boring happens.

...I'd forgotten...

Reviewing Spree #2

I'm not really sure what inspired this, but I'm in the mood to do some more reviewing today. My focus this time is Mokuba/____ stories; meaning stories with Mokuba in the pairing. I would like to specify that none of these stories will be Mokuba/Seto, because I'm not really into the incest thing. I allow it for the Host Club fandom, but only because of the fact that it's a running gag in the show.

So far...I haven't found anything good. It's very frustrating to read and read and read, and not find anything of substance. So far I've found run-on sentences, block paragraphing (block paragraphing?! Are you serious? *pulls at hair*), and badly done lemons. I'm searching specifically for M-rated stories at the moment, as Lemons are my expertise and I can actually offer help on them.

...I have to tell you...perhaps it's because I'm on fanfiction.net, but...It's looking like a wasteland out here... I'll edit this later with more commentary.

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EDIT:

So...yeah, yesterday was ridiculous. There are no amount of words to express what I went through yesterday. It just didn't make any sense. In any case, what ended up happening in short was that I found a fic that really needed improving, I tried to explain it in the review and I didn't really feel like she knew where I was coming from so...I... *cough*

...I re-wrote her fic.

Now, this isn't something that I do all the time, and I know that this makes me a complete douche and a scumbag, but I didn't do it just to be a jerk; I actually wanted her to see the potential that her fic had. Her FF.net username is in both the summary, and in the author's notes before and after the story as a disclaimer letting everyone know that it's her story AND it's only intended for learning purposes.

In the review, I told her that I would be willing to take the fic down any time she wanted, and I stand by that.

...I've never done that to someone before. I've never re-written another person's fic, even when I was asked to. I'm not really sure what came over me, but I would prefer if I never had to go through that again...really. It took three hours of work to do that, and I wasn't even really a fan of what the fic entailed....

Older Works.

So...I got a good look at something that I wrote quite some years ago.

It was absolutely terrible, even by my own standards. It was written back in 2005, however, back when I was just getting into fanfiction. When I was going back to it, I thought that it was going to be cool...and then it totally wasn't. Even the corrected version doesn't change how the chapter was actually written.

I drew maps for the story, there's lore about the towns and cities there, and for some reason there was a cacophony of languages inserted. I still think that the story had a good concept...just not good writing. I'm rather disappointed in myself about it, as I could easily compare what I'd written to things that I'm definitely not into now in any way, shape or form--in fact, I can compare it to things that I hold in disdain...

I'm thinking about trying to re-write it because of all the work that I put into it, but I'm not sure whether or not it would be worth it. I've thought about publishing my own short story/novella, but I'm not really sure that I'm up to snuff. On the other hand, I'd rather not prove other authors right and be in the statistic of decent writers who aren't making money because they're too caught up in fanfiction. It's in this capacity that I can appreciate part of the fan market in Japan--not only can you be recognized for your talents, but you can still do fanwork and be recognized for your original stuff, too.

I'll have to find my groove, but I promised a very special person that I would wipe it all and try to start it over again. I hope that I'm up to the task with my original fiction, although something tells me that I'm not.

Sneaking at Work~

This is not something that I usually--who am I kidding? I do it all the time. I just wanted you all to know that I'm definitely trying to get that last chapter of Be Cool up. I'm very proud of how it ends, although I'll give you a hint and say that it's a bit in complete. I feel like this is going to become my new "Oh, to see the Light!" series, wherein I create small one-shots for this pairing set in the same universe. I've got ideas spinning in my head already.

Back to the subject; work. I'm definitely one of those people who sneaks on the internet at work. I'm not really a facebook person as far as that goes, though [although I have used my work computer to go onto facebook once or twice], and I spend most of my time listening to music as I work and typing up fanfiction/RP posts wherever I go. Speaking of, I'm going to have to write a post one of these days about how I feel about RPing...

Anyway, can you tell I'm bored at work?

Hmmm...

Yep, I'm still working on things. I've been with a couple friends over the weekend, trying to forget about the fact that I don't have a computer. It was very therapeutic, but now I have to get back on the grind...

For fans of Be Cool~

...I lost chapter 6. It was really good, and it was perfect, but my laptop died (I'm at work right now), and there's nothing more that I could do, unfortunately. I've started writing out another version of the chapter, but last night I had to sob to myself because...it was so perfect and...perfect. Whatever else I write will never be as good.

...just had to vent on that.

Also, updates may or may not be slow because of my new lack of a laptop. While I do have resources, the time using these resources to type things is very limited, which would explain why I just posted more than one journal entry at once although they were written during separate hours of the day.

Specifically about Kratos Aurion~

I keep having this urge to do more Kratos fanfiction lately. I'm not sure how to feel about this. I honestly thought that Lloyd/Zelos was my ship for this fandom, but I can't help but feel that things have definitely changed in this capacity.

I've had at least three other Kratos fanfic ideas in the last twenty-four hours. I think what I like is the challenge of it all. Kratos has a very difficult type of personality to convey, because a lot of emotions run underneath his exterior, and he is the epitome of a person who only says what is necessary. He is neutral in all matter that he feels does not concern him--and a lot of those situations that he removes himself from could be be seen as personal by a more emotional individual/character. He let his own son choose his fate despite any mistakes that he may have made along the way, even if some of those mistakes could be attributed to himself due to his involvement with Cruxis.

As I've said in a previous post, that's the difference between Kratos and Seto--or one of the differences, rather. Kratos is a deeply evolved character with four thousand years of history. He met Mithos on the battlefield as an emissary of peace, and Kratos decided to train him and later was betrayed by Mithos's perversion of Martel's ideals. He's got a disjointed family, guilt for his dead wife and is distanced from his closest friends, whom he is reminded of with Lloyd and his group. There's more to add, for those who are not familiar with the character, but suffice it to say that he's a character that represents many important philosophical ideals.

I want to practice with his personality, to give him a bit of insight into him in a good way. A lot of ToS fanfiction is unacceptably OOC. Terrible. Like with Mokuba themed YGO fanfiction, I would like to correct this.