michelel72

So remember that time I was all fangirly about Love Is All You Need to Destroy Your Enemies (WtNV/Dresden)?

I sort of accidentally wrote a fic set in the same 'verse. A fanfic of a fanfic, if you will. (

shadydave is the sort of hoopy frood who gives open permission via profile notes.)

I know this is the longest of long shots, but is there anyone out there who is familiar with this fic and willing to serve as an early reader of mine? Right now I've got a fairly rough draft of *cough* not quite 38,000 words.

I'm not looking for SPaG; this would be any or all of the following: Character voice, story flow, pacing, and "Dresden Files" canon. You know, the hard stuff.

To make this even more fun, I'm hoping to post it no later than Valentine's Day.

Whee!

Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/111894.html

I want a structure beta, on-call. Someone willing to just have 27,500 words dumped in their lap (a story in which the climax is an 8,300-word, eight-person argument scene) and able to whip it into shape so it doesn't just trail off into nothing soon after the climax. Also someone willing to either ignore ties to another, 6,500-word story, or to read that as groundwork. And all in fanfic, which requires knowledge of -- or willingness to assume or learn -- the canon.

And, ideally, for free, and swift, and magically knowing what stuff I wouldn't want to change. Gee, I wonder why I don't seem to have one of those just lying around the house ....

(I'll probably just post the silly thing shortly, because ... it's a hobby, and fanfic readers tend to be forgiving of things like wonky structure. But still. How will I ever learn, why can't I just be good at stuff without working at it or studying, blah, blah.)

Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/110951.html

I wrote something, I wrote something, oh holy cats, I wrote something!

Not any one of the three fics I meant to be working on, not even the same fandom, but I don't even care!

Anyone out there up for giving feedback on a 6k Iron Man fic? If I don't get nibbles within a day or two, I'll just post, but I should let it sit that long anyway just so I can give it a fresh look before actually posting. And I would like to improve if there's something about it that can be fixed.

It's gen (background Tony/Pepper and Howard/Maria), set between IM2 and the Avengers movie, and it's about Howard and Tony's relationship, explored via handwavium. I'm not looking for SPaG (though always appreciated) so much as general story flow and, more importantly, character voice. Because, well, Tony Stark. I've never written him before, never even contemplated it, never thought I'd write anything at this rate that had nothing to do with SGA, so ... yeah. Another pair of eyes would be good.

And now I will go fall down, since I need to get up for work in about five hours. Blah. But still, I wrote something, whee!

And, since I'm a bit punchy, I will leave you -- under a cut, because I'm not quite that cruel -- a listing of quasi-Tumblr-style tags I will not use when I post to AO3. Imagine them strung together with commas to separate them, because I can't be bothered to format them readably that way at the moment. Enjoy!

( (And not even one 'feels' ...) )

Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/109868.html

This is an odd one. I've written a story (fanfiction, for Stargate: Atlantis) in which a character has experienced auditory hallucinations for years and thinks he's schizophrenic.

It's a what-if, a character study, with brief snippets considering various episodes in light of this possibility. Only, the thing is, I'm probably about as neurotypical as they come. I really don't want to fall into ableism-fail.

Is there anyone out there who knows about schizophrenia and/or hallucinatory conditions (more than Wikipedia offers) and would be willing to review this story to (try to) make sure I'm not being offensive or ignorant (or offensively ignorant)? Does anyone know a place where I might find such a reviewer? (

accessportrayal seems close but not quite right as a forum to pose this request ... but maybe I'm wrong about that.)

The story is ~4400 words. It's not a "fix-it". Knowledge of SGA canon is a definite plus, but I can provide supplementary notes for those who know the content area but not the TV show. It's also pretty rough, and it may not work as a story, at least yet.

If this is something I should just regard as "yay, I wrote something, now never publish it", I'd rather know up-front, you know? Thanks to anyone who considers!

Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/106405.html

To my surprise, I ended up pinch-writing two stories for the SGA Genficathon. I wrote them well after the art deadline, so I had no expectations of art, but while the stories were still Anonymous,

tridget chose one of them to create gift art for!

I'm all bouncy because this is only the second associated work for any of my fics, as far as I know. (The first was

sophia_sol's lovely podfic of my Like Thermodynamics.) Yayyyy!

Be advised that the story itself involves a serious injury to one character, and the art does not shy away from depicting that. Bearing that in mind ... check it out!

Cover art for Clipped by

tridget: At LJ; at AO3

Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/103735.html

Cross-promoting:

sga_genficathon signups are underway and close in a week. All categories are welcome, but we could use some more folks writing for "Team", and we could really use some more folks to join the, well, none we currently have signed up for "Humor".

(I personally find humor one of the hardest kinds of writing to get right — and possibly the hardest — so I wouldn't say I'm surprised, exactly.)

I know a lot of people have drifted away from SGA; I know real life is in the way for a lot of others who might otherwise sign up. But if you're wavering, please consider this a friendly nudge; and if you know anyone who might be interested, please consider givin them a nudge!

Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/101926.html

It's done it's done it's doooooooooone. 26,500 words over three months, most of them difficult.

Anyway. I'm looking for early-reader feedback on an SGA story. It's about 26.5k words; it's ultimately Rodney-centric (obviously — I mean, we've met, right?) and departs from canon somewhere between 3x14 and 3x17. (Or you could say it departs from canon thousands of years ago, but our characters still go through canon until this point.) I'm not looking for someone to do just spelling/punctuation/grammar review (SPaG). I had trouble with this story, and I suspect it's missing something, so I'm looking for one or two folks who can tell me if the story works at all; and if it works, what (if anything) is missing or needs better development.

( Warnings and summary are under the cut. ) I feel like the warnings as listed are more alarming than the fic itself is, but I so can't judge at this point.

Anyway. Anyone interested?

Current Mood: finally!
Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/99930.html

I haven't been around much; I haven't had time. Most of that is work; I adore my job, but it's exhausting, and nights/weekends really aren't enough for me even to keep up with the day-to-day, much less reading (I haven't read half the SGA Big Bang archive; I haven't read any of last year's Atlantis Big Bang; I have over 400 fics, fic indexes, and other works tagged as "to be read"; the ReverseBang just went live and the GenFicathon is about to), much much less writing. Which is frustrating. I simply need more time than that to switch from programmer-mindset to writing-mindset.

( A brief (for me) whine about the State of the Writing. )

With reading and writing fic, as well as keeping up with my rlist/flist, I spend a lot of time on my computer. My ISP is Comcast, who provides Symantec's Norton Security Suite free to its customers, and I have to wonder what the hell they're thinking. Norton was once the gold standard for computer utilities, if I recall correctly, but it's been worse than a joke for years. Why in the world would Comcast encourage its customers to use a product that makes Comcast's service seem unusably slow? I'm not exaggerating — when my browser takes 48 seconds to process a simple page-down command (yes, I timed it, twice; yes, the response time is unmeasurably quick with Norton uninstalled), I may be savvy enough to blame the add-on software, but not everyone will be, and they'll blame Comcast's speed. Inexplicably stupid marketing/support choice.

Not much else to report beyond that, so I'll close out with a huge batch of …

( TV mini-reviews (and two bonus fic recs) )

And that's that.

Current Mood: exhausted
Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/96775.html

So AO3 recently introduced a "kudos" feature. I had no idea what it was when I first encountered it, but now I (think I) get it.

I know some folks don't like it. I also was tipped to a mention of me over at

stargate_anon, in which an anon apologized for leaving a guest kudo rather than a signed one on one of my fics. (If anyone happens to be curious (bet not), no, I don't tend to hang out in the anon forums; I really like to know what's going on and who/what is being talked about, but I just don't have the time or energy to follow the anon memes. They're so busy! And so nested!)

For what it's worth: I'm perfectly fine with and appreciate kudos. I don't mind if they're unsigned. I adore getting feedback of any kind, and while comments thrill me, I know sometimes readers don't feel they have anything specific to say. That's why I've started adding anonymous polls for numeric ratings to my latest fic — I'd rather have feedback than worry someone liked (or didn't like!) my story but for whatever reason didn't want to comment. (I would go back and add the polls to my older fic, but LJ/DW only creates polls when an entry is first posted, not when it's edited.)

My one regret is that there isn't a workable way to thank individual readers who leave kudos or anonymous ratings, so for what it's worth: To anyone who leaves me a kudo or anonymous rating, thank you!

Current Mood: pleased
Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/92839.html

This was my second full year of fanfic writing, and it was much less productive. I adore my job, don't get me wrong, but it sucks up a lot of time and energy (and I'm fully aware I don't have it half as bad as my supervisor,

ninjamonkey73). I'm down to "only" six cats, but they also demand time; I got involved in

stargateficrec; and then little things like the occasional book or video game (damn you, Okami!) steal even more time.

I'm reading lightly in a few other fandoms (Chuck, Criminal Minds, Sherlock, Doctor Who, even Sanctuary), but I'm still monofandom in my writing. I just don't have any stories I want to tell in other fandoms, no matter how much I've enjoyed the source. I think a lot of that is character identification; Rodney McKay is my "in", and I haven't latched onto any other characters in the same way.

( The year's published stories … )

That adds up to … ~47.6k words for the year, which is a surprise. I thought I'd produced significantly less compared to last year's 53k.

And just for the hell of it, I'll go through my uWIP list as well:( Let it WIP! )

And that's it. I'll probably be working on "Element Wheel", though I do try to keep nibbling away at "Broken Mirror"; the rest will probably get tweaked off-and-on as the mood strikes me.

Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/92607.html

what is this I don't even

I wrote smut, guys. You know, the stuff I usually skim and won't beta? Yeah, that. I don't even know.

~~And now I need a beta.~~ Explicit sex (McKay/Keller/Sheppard) with bonus angst, because that's just how I roll. Unequal relationship dynamics (but this isn't McShep pining, don't worry, and no consent issues or partner betrayal); a teensy mention of ridiculously minor bondage kink; about 1800 words.

(ETA: I know have two brave volunteers and one sympathizer. Thanks, all!)

Everything I know about writing explicit sex comes from reading fanfic and

fanficrants, so ... yeah.

Anyone?

Current Mood: confused
Crossposts: http://michelel72.livejournal.com/87840.html

ETA: All set! (Original message below.)

I had meant to have an epilogue to Damper ready back when that story actually posted, but life got in the way. I've finally finished the silly thing. Would anyone be willing to beta-read it for me? I don't really need a SPaG review (though that's always appreciated); I'm more worried whether it flows properly, if anything's awkward, if anything doesn't make sense, that sort of thing. (I'm half tempted to post it without a beta, but I'm trying to break that habit.) It's a fluffy little preshippy/teamy thing (because for me, 4800 words is "little"), but it does follow directly off "Damper", so a lot of it won't make sense without that. Many thanks to any who consider it.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" - Cake

Okay, so, I'm a huge proponent of making stories as readable as possible — clear, consistent, and easy interlinking; no font/format games; properly spaced paragraphs ... the whole shebang.

I did not, however, realise that "customized comment pages" was a thing, much less a problem for folks. I'm so accustomed to encountering them and then just appending &style=mine or using the header-bar option for that, it didn't occur to me. But I've just encountered a discussion (via rec from

astridv — thanks!) in which some folks said they simply won't read fics that open in customized comment pages.

So I've disabled them for my journal. I find the resulting default view blah and unpretty, but my custom journal view is a little bold for fics (dark blue borders! bright white text fields!), so a lot of that is simply the contrast.

I do apologize to anyone who disliked the former method.

And I'll still be crossposting everything to DW and AO3 anyway, so it may not really matter, but what the heck. Alienating readers is profoundly counterproductive and never my intent.

Current Mood: dorky

It's done! It's done! At long last it's done! ::KermitFlail!:: Which means I need a beta with a quickness, since I have to post by the first or second or something.

The fic is ~25k and is for the Sticks & Snark exchange, so no one who's in the exchange (unless it's okay for recipients and non-recipients to be revealed early; this is my first time with this stuff and I'm trying to play it safe). Is there anyone around here who would be interested in tackling it this weekend, perhaps?

I'm not so much looking for SPaG (though notes on that are always appreciated); I'm more looking for someone who will kick my butt and not let me get away with anything. I'm especially concerned with any slippage of character voice and with whether the structure/pacing works or has problems. I have a non-fandom beta and a checking-for-locale-headdesk-errors beta, but I don't have a formal in-fandom beta who has signed on to beat me up (metaphorically) ... so here's your chance, folks!

And I am truly sorry I didn't get this done much sooner, to allow more time for beta and revisions.

Anyway, interested parties, please let me know. I will now go sleep for a day or two.

ETA: I now have a pair of tough cookies on my case. Or something. Heh. Thanks, all!

Current Mood: accomplished

I just wrote a 5500* hundred word scene.

Five. Thousand. Five. Hundred. Words. As one scene. In, need it be said, a larger story.

Remember that I'm, like, the un-

frith_in_thorns when it comes to description, too — she writes evocative, vivid worlds and I have ... stuff happen in ... y'know, places that have, like, walls sometimes.

5500 wooooooords. ONE SCEEEEENE.

Awwww, whose a logorrheic little writer, hmmm? You, self! That's right! Yesss you are!

*Unless MSWord is lying. Which totally happens, right? Right??

Current Mood: wordy

As always, this is for a fic: Anybody out there know northern Los Angeles County, specifically the Palmdale / Juniper Hills / Devil's Punchbowl area? I've done what research I can by Google Maps and Wikipedia, but if anybody out there knows this area personally and would be willing to cast an eye over a few passages to make sure I don't have any egregious milieu fail, please let me know. (Taking specialized beta passes to a new high! Besides, maybe lining someone up will inspire me to finish the damn thing already. And yes, I am in fact kicking myself for not finding a way to set the fic someplace I've ever actually been ....)

I might as well give it a try. If genfic is your thing, please consider

polyfandom_gen for your announcement, rec, search, or prompt needs. Rules/guidelines are in the welcome post or at the profile page. Feedback, advice, suggestions, or anything of that ilk is very welcome.

Feel free to pass word. Once the comm qualifies (ten members, five posts), I'll announce it over at the SGA Noticeboard ... and if it hits that point, I'll upgrade the account so that folks don't have to deal with ads.

So I've never done challenge writing before. I've never been much good at developing a plot from a brief suggestion, just to start. And deadlines and I ... yeah, it's best if we just don't speak, because we always end up arguing and then they start throwing things and I storm out and ... it's just a whole drama, you know?

Yet I've signed up for the Rodney & Teyla Thing-a-Thon. It's just ... I've read some kick-ass stories pairing them, and they're even allowing gen R&T friendship this year, and even with that only eight people had signed up so far, and I finally scraped together three suggestions, and ....

And I'm pretty sure this can't end well. Sigh. The deadlines look a little generous from this side, at least, and it doesn't have to be my usual epic!! sort of thing. I can come up with 1k words of these two awesome people being awesome together, right?

... Yeah, I'm doomed.

(So, you know, more folk should come sign up too! Join me! We can fail together, or you can point and laugh as you blow past me; what's to lose, right?)

Current Mood: doomed

Is there anyone out there who read my disturbing SGA fic "Relationship" and would be willing to beta the possibly slightly less disturbing prequel? I can just post it, but I'd appreciate a second pair of eyes first to make sure I'm not missing anything egregious. This would be more for content and flow than SPaG.

Note: This story primarily involves OCs and contains (mild) underage sexual activity as well as creepy dysfunctional behavior on the part of one of the OCs. It's ~5700 words and is a bit artsy, as if everything else wasn't offputting enough.

I'm working on a brief (no, really!) story to serve as backstory for an unpleasant little fanfic. This one primarily involves OCs, which aren't normally my thing; that's just how this one worked out.

There are two primary characters I need to handle, with a third on the sidelines. One of those characters already gave me naming problems (so I've just named her Anne and she's going to have to live with it). Because of that, I thought it might be wise to Google the last name I picked for the other major character, because I don't even know where I got it and I don't want any bizarre, unintentional allusions.

"Capricci", having as it does a dictionary connotation of pranks, whims, or whimsical music, does not work at all for this guy, a dour musical illiterate. Sigh. And no, it doesn't even work ironically. However, I did think to Google italian surname, and I found an article at about.com, and the very first surname I clicked there works passably on a metaphorical level. So, yay, he's got a name.

I don't even much care about this story, is the thing; I just want it done. On the upside, I don't think I have plans for any more OCs for a good long while after this ....

ETA: On the other hand, using Google to try to determine the likely age range in which a precocious little girl is likely to enjoy tea parties could have been much more scarring than it turned out to be.

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michelel72

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What have I wrought?! (Fanfic help?)

Cater to me, world, cater to meeee ...

Beta reader wanted: Gen Iron Man fic

Content-beta requested: portrayal of mental disorder

Art for meeeee!

SGA Genficathon: Send in the clowns

Fanfic beta (?) needed: SGA canon-departure AU

June 2011: State of the me

Kudos!

Fanfic year in review: 2010

Beta (no longer) needed: Angsty threesome PWP (no, really)

Beta (no longer) needed: Epilogue to SGA Fic "Damper"

Journal adjustment for fics

Beta needed: SGA Sticks & Snark fic

So ... stuff happened, then?

Random US geography question

Oh, what the heck -- Polyfandom Gen is a go!

I'm gonna regret this, I bet

Beta needed: SGA prequel to "Relationship"

The name game (OC irritation mix)

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