Wednesday 8 December 2004

It's Been a While...

Okay, so it's been a long time since I've posted. Sadly, this is partly because it's been a long time since I've had much to post.

So, to begin: thanks to all of you who suggested fanfics. (Please feel free to continue doing so.) I looked at all the suggestions, and some of them I liked and some of them I didn't. Not sure I should name names beyond that. :)

One comment I would make, to the reader who suggested that stories with more reviews on FanFiction.net are usually better—I have not found this to be the case. I've seen far too many cases of crap stories with literally hundreds of reviews, next to excellent stories with only a few. My feeling is that the average FF.net reviewer is a teenager who's more impressed by surface gloss (e.g. the "coolness" factor) than by any real story depth. Don't get me wrong, gloss is not a bad thing—and I'm perfectly capable of appreciating a shallow, mindless story when I'm in the mood—but typically I want something a bit more substantial. Written by someone who is actually familiar with the source material, rather than just having read other fanfics. Someone who knows something about grammar. And can spell.

But I digress.

As ar as SM4200 goes: I've been pretty stuck for the last few weeks. I've mentioned before that the opening has been causing me a lot of grief, both with the pacing of the story and with trying to get events to go the way I need them to go, without the result coming out reading like…well, something written by one of the authors I lambasted above.

However. To cut a long story short, I've more or less licked it. I rewrote the biggest problem section (a debate between Artemis and one of the 'S' Division people) on Sunday night, and the whole section still hung together okay when I re-read it on Monday night, so I figure I've finally passed the roadblock. I'm now embedded in a rather different debate (between Itsuko and Sadako), which is proceeding nicely.

Chapter currently standing at 5667 words. That may not sound like much more than my previous status report, but I've deleted nearly 2000 words into the omake file, as well…

6 Comments:

At 8 December 2004 at 22:16, Anonymous Anonymous said...

About the reviews...yes, you are correct. That's the reason why i said it's not the best way - but certainly one of the few available ways around. Like I said, better than nothing at all, no? Half the time you could find nice stories, half the time you did find crappy ones. I agree. It doesn't help when anoymous readers decide to irritably click, click and click on "Submit review" over and over again to add to the number of reviews. But my word stands. It's one of the available ways to browse around, even if you get bad results.

In anycase, at most, you click on the penname of your favourite author, and look at that author's favourite stories. Normally, that's where I find all the nice, pretty good diamonds are. Many times, anyway.

But eh...to be totally honest, finding a good story is like finding a needle in a haystack for ff.net. Waaay too many stories there. - -

Anyway, good luck on your story. Know that I'm eagerly awating an update from you. ^^

 
At 9 December 2004 at 00:51, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh yes. Many reviews doesn't mean much. Lots of authors have their clique of friends -- which seems to be the case at ASMR -- reviewing what is essentially a crap story with all the gush and joy of finally discovering, say, Shakespeare. It's mad. And a grasp of even fourth grade English seems to be beyond far too many.
I'd recommend Les Lapin Le Plus Rose as a nice take on the Chibi-Usa arrival - almost a year too early. Bits of problematic grammar, but for the most part, it's a good story.
Or you can visit a new LJ community, exceptional_sm, where members can post what they consider excellent SM fics, under certain guidelines. Maybe in a while, there'll be something interesting there.

 
At 11 December 2004 at 18:49, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't worry Angus! Take you're time, we all know that in the end it's worth the wait. Of course..don't take too much time because then we may have to start riots somewhere.
-lynz

 
At 15 December 2004 at 12:32, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with 'lynz' I think SM4200 is totally Fab, don't leave us hanging too long. -Nike

 
At 31 December 2004 at 05:46, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You just have to write REALLY sappy Usagi/Mamoru love stories that are She's the One spin-offs or something like that and make the reader think as little as possible and you'll get TONS of "omg you're the greatest!!11" reviews.
Almut;)

 
At 31 December 2004 at 06:34, Blogger Angus said...

Ack! Bite your tongue!

 

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