Procrastatron must be stopped, no matter the cost...
The title of this post by the way is borrowed from the 1980's Transformers: The Movie line about Megatron. I've been procrastinating like crazy whilst sick, and guess what, I'm finally just barely well enough to stop catering to it! Haha! I will rise above! Sort of.
I had to be bribed to make this post with ice cream, after all . . .
Well, there are many things I've been meaning to say, so this post may be long. You'll just have to deal with that if you know what's good for you.
Why do I sound mean? I'm making this post so you can read it. Longer means more. If its too much, you can put it down and come back later without having to wait for something truly new. I'm doing you a service. My sickness has made me spiteful. More Kistulotican kindness is in order. So, I apologize for some of the snark MC MK is about to lay down along with some mad beatz. For real, yo.
Ow.
So first, last week's update: I know, nothing from me, but hey, live with it. I'm going to be posting less often now, but with more quality I believe. I'm not Lisa Teez, and thats hopefully one of the reasons you like my work.
I know, I need to not mention authors that make me roll my eyes so much, but come on, that begged it.
So anyway! Updates and such. In my writing, I've been working on something special for a commission - a fan fic story in fact. Not really something I write very much, but on commission I bend my limits a little. It got really far, then I got miserably sick. I plan to be done with it in short order.
Future works include: The Secret Origin series, volumes 1 and 2 at the very least, staring Dust and Pink accordingly. Many people wonder how these two supers got their powers. You'll find out in short order within these stories!
There are two stand alone pieces, a fantasy and a sci fi I also have relatively well plotted . . . but if either of these will ever be written is anyone's guess.
After these projects I plan to draw somewhat into seclusion and publish a lot less often while working on the obvious "sequel" project that will allow a lot of time for me to not worry so much about deadlines and push quality up high as it goes. For a little idea of just what that could be . . . this link should say it all.
If it doesn't, well . . . reread everything I've ever written.
Oh, a new Rose story may be churned out somewhat soon, purposefully being delayed until after V-day.
Right.
We all know thats sickness talking . . .
So, looking back at the last update I see one thing I enjoyed reading. Omega Girl 4! It puts Lacie into another lovely sticky situation. I'm loving the latest developments. OG is a series that to me proves I'm not a total snot/snob. There are many niggling little things inside of it, but overall I enjoy it for its fun, its story, and its ideas if not always its execution. The OG series is actually getting a crossover with the SG series, though using 2nd tier characters I suppose. I need to get on my part for that- though no one will be seeing any of it until it's posted, and that won't happen till it's done.
Still, Omega Girl 4 continues to keep me drawn in, which is no simple task!
Also in this week's red update, we have Sara Castle with her lovely elfen surprise nudity. Despite the hours I could spend groaning about how if she's going to rip off shadow run so much she could at least spell elven as such . . . I won't go into that.
Why?
Because I tried reading Touch of Frost, chapter 1.
I know I've hammered on about how I dislike her work before, but when told this was "a hint more toward what her writing was like before it was Jo-ified" I thought I would read one last SC tale to finale just to see what I could get from it.
What did I get from it?
A headache.
So here, I will finally be saying reasons why I think that Sara Castle is the doctor without clothes (due to her profession, a twist on the emperor and the like). Using big words does not make you an intelligent writer. Adding suspense by not going just from scene to scene, but saying "Things were not what they seemed AND PEOPLE KNEW AND OH MY GOD SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN" is not building suspense.
Looking back over much of my older work as I have as of late, I see her constant tense problem reflects some of my own work in an embarrassing way. Perhaps part of why this bothers me so much is I didn't even realize I was doing it. Harsher self editing will be fixing this to the point where I hope one day to count the caliber of my work among well... the best.
Taking a cliche plot and twisting it in a new way isn't a bad thing. However, taking a plot everyone knows and adapting it into a slightly different fetish genre is not the same. Making your cliche cyberpunk into cyber porn is not translation, or transition, it's the same thing people do when they just add sex to established fandoms - crap.
Lately I've been reading a lot of Iago - a writer who is I believe a master of the no-induction induction story - so I can enjoy a story that doesn't take a kacknotically long time to do a subtle sensual induction. I love such inductions done well, but I don't need them and they can often be a crutch. One part of a story cannot make up for the rest. However, if you're going to go through the trouble of pretending to have such scenes - the actual how and why and such - don't make them suck. Maybe one reason I hate the kind of cyberpunk she writes, is because she may as well be writing high fantasy with how ridiculous some of that tech is.
But in the end, I find that sadly a lot of the problem with her work now is what it was back when I wanted it to be good. I'm always left with at least some kind of half-full feeling. This done well, will make the average person (IE: undiscerning reader) believe that something went over their head. This however, does not mean the writer was too intelligent for you to follow. If you have to reread things over and over to fully understand a twisted induction and its yummy and such, thats one thing. If you're left rolling your eyes feeling as if the writer didn't even know part of the plot and found it clever?
That's not brilliance.
Thats a lack thereof.
I apologize in a way for this rant, as it was planned about two weeks ago so some of this isn't really coming to fruition due to me only remembering bits and pieces.
So, in this post, I make a new promise to you my readers: I will work harder with each piece I write that nothing that I bitch about or snark about will hit you in the face the way it hits me when I read it. I will work harder and harder to make sure no plot twist is convoluted. I will work harder to make sure if anything is over anyone's head, it is only above the character's head and if you miss it, well, you get to find out when the character does or upon a reread. I will make sure that I show my understanding of the English language without making you question my high school diploma.
There's more of course, but there's also a reason I haven't been writing whilst sick. I haven't been capable of that. Sadly this makes me worry my coming out of rust will still take more time, but well . . . such happens! We all just have to do our bests, right?
So, heres hoping theres something worth me reading tomorrow.
I'd rather not just go "oh great, men writing themselves into lesbian fantasies and sara castle pretending she can."
Also I would like to note that recently, the Jo herself, Valencia and I engaged in a conversation of SC's writing, to which Jo said that it should partially be excused due to her extenuating circumstances.
She can be forgiven for such, to an extent.
Her writing must stand on it's own.
If you are in a state where you have to make excuses for your writing, or those defending you need to, maybe you should work on honing your craft more instead of posting stories. A writer can always "clarify" after the fact, but a piece must stand alone. There are some of my own pieces that are weaker perhaps without someone pointing out facts, but I won't say you should ignore that. Perhaps I suggest reading through them to get to my better works, but never at the cost of pretending a story can be "supplemented" as such.
That's just cheapening your time, and mine.
Well, I think that finishes this up. Nothing more occurs to me.
Oh, one thing does: I've been rereading backlogs of writers since well . . . new stuff ain't doing it for me so much. I've gotten through most of my favorite writer's entire lists. Are there any writers I should glance through? Red stories only please, I'm not as forgiving as I was when I was a forum personality.
Also any Trilby stories I haven't read: would be nice to know which were less heavy on the repetition and more on the required reading list! So your blogger is begging for things to read during her recovery so she can give you more to read. Indulge her.
Well, thats a wrap. Love all of you my fans, and wish me a happy 21st birthday on Tuesday :)
~Madam Kistulot
I had to be bribed to make this post with ice cream, after all . . .
Well, there are many things I've been meaning to say, so this post may be long. You'll just have to deal with that if you know what's good for you.
Why do I sound mean? I'm making this post so you can read it. Longer means more. If its too much, you can put it down and come back later without having to wait for something truly new. I'm doing you a service. My sickness has made me spiteful. More Kistulotican kindness is in order. So, I apologize for some of the snark MC MK is about to lay down along with some mad beatz. For real, yo.
Ow.
So first, last week's update: I know, nothing from me, but hey, live with it. I'm going to be posting less often now, but with more quality I believe. I'm not Lisa Teez, and thats hopefully one of the reasons you like my work.
I know, I need to not mention authors that make me roll my eyes so much, but come on, that begged it.
So anyway! Updates and such. In my writing, I've been working on something special for a commission - a fan fic story in fact. Not really something I write very much, but on commission I bend my limits a little. It got really far, then I got miserably sick. I plan to be done with it in short order.
Future works include: The Secret Origin series, volumes 1 and 2 at the very least, staring Dust and Pink accordingly. Many people wonder how these two supers got their powers. You'll find out in short order within these stories!
There are two stand alone pieces, a fantasy and a sci fi I also have relatively well plotted . . . but if either of these will ever be written is anyone's guess.
After these projects I plan to draw somewhat into seclusion and publish a lot less often while working on the obvious "sequel" project that will allow a lot of time for me to not worry so much about deadlines and push quality up high as it goes. For a little idea of just what that could be . . . this link should say it all.
If it doesn't, well . . . reread everything I've ever written.
Oh, a new Rose story may be churned out somewhat soon, purposefully being delayed until after V-day.
Right.
We all know thats sickness talking . . .
So, looking back at the last update I see one thing I enjoyed reading. Omega Girl 4! It puts Lacie into another lovely sticky situation. I'm loving the latest developments. OG is a series that to me proves I'm not a total snot/snob. There are many niggling little things inside of it, but overall I enjoy it for its fun, its story, and its ideas if not always its execution. The OG series is actually getting a crossover with the SG series, though using 2nd tier characters I suppose. I need to get on my part for that- though no one will be seeing any of it until it's posted, and that won't happen till it's done.
Still, Omega Girl 4 continues to keep me drawn in, which is no simple task!
Also in this week's red update, we have Sara Castle with her lovely elfen surprise nudity. Despite the hours I could spend groaning about how if she's going to rip off shadow run so much she could at least spell elven as such . . . I won't go into that.
Why?
Because I tried reading Touch of Frost, chapter 1.
I know I've hammered on about how I dislike her work before, but when told this was "a hint more toward what her writing was like before it was Jo-ified" I thought I would read one last SC tale to finale just to see what I could get from it.
What did I get from it?
A headache.
So here, I will finally be saying reasons why I think that Sara Castle is the doctor without clothes (due to her profession, a twist on the emperor and the like). Using big words does not make you an intelligent writer. Adding suspense by not going just from scene to scene, but saying "Things were not what they seemed AND PEOPLE KNEW AND OH MY GOD SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN" is not building suspense.
Looking back over much of my older work as I have as of late, I see her constant tense problem reflects some of my own work in an embarrassing way. Perhaps part of why this bothers me so much is I didn't even realize I was doing it. Harsher self editing will be fixing this to the point where I hope one day to count the caliber of my work among well... the best.
Taking a cliche plot and twisting it in a new way isn't a bad thing. However, taking a plot everyone knows and adapting it into a slightly different fetish genre is not the same. Making your cliche cyberpunk into cyber porn is not translation, or transition, it's the same thing people do when they just add sex to established fandoms - crap.
Lately I've been reading a lot of Iago - a writer who is I believe a master of the no-induction induction story - so I can enjoy a story that doesn't take a kacknotically long time to do a subtle sensual induction. I love such inductions done well, but I don't need them and they can often be a crutch. One part of a story cannot make up for the rest. However, if you're going to go through the trouble of pretending to have such scenes - the actual how and why and such - don't make them suck. Maybe one reason I hate the kind of cyberpunk she writes, is because she may as well be writing high fantasy with how ridiculous some of that tech is.
But in the end, I find that sadly a lot of the problem with her work now is what it was back when I wanted it to be good. I'm always left with at least some kind of half-full feeling. This done well, will make the average person (IE: undiscerning reader) believe that something went over their head. This however, does not mean the writer was too intelligent for you to follow. If you have to reread things over and over to fully understand a twisted induction and its yummy and such, thats one thing. If you're left rolling your eyes feeling as if the writer didn't even know part of the plot and found it clever?
That's not brilliance.
Thats a lack thereof.
I apologize in a way for this rant, as it was planned about two weeks ago so some of this isn't really coming to fruition due to me only remembering bits and pieces.
So, in this post, I make a new promise to you my readers: I will work harder with each piece I write that nothing that I bitch about or snark about will hit you in the face the way it hits me when I read it. I will work harder and harder to make sure no plot twist is convoluted. I will work harder to make sure if anything is over anyone's head, it is only above the character's head and if you miss it, well, you get to find out when the character does or upon a reread. I will make sure that I show my understanding of the English language without making you question my high school diploma.
There's more of course, but there's also a reason I haven't been writing whilst sick. I haven't been capable of that. Sadly this makes me worry my coming out of rust will still take more time, but well . . . such happens! We all just have to do our bests, right?
So, heres hoping theres something worth me reading tomorrow.
I'd rather not just go "oh great, men writing themselves into lesbian fantasies and sara castle pretending she can."
Also I would like to note that recently, the Jo herself, Valencia and I engaged in a conversation of SC's writing, to which Jo said that it should partially be excused due to her extenuating circumstances.
She can be forgiven for such, to an extent.
Her writing must stand on it's own.
If you are in a state where you have to make excuses for your writing, or those defending you need to, maybe you should work on honing your craft more instead of posting stories. A writer can always "clarify" after the fact, but a piece must stand alone. There are some of my own pieces that are weaker perhaps without someone pointing out facts, but I won't say you should ignore that. Perhaps I suggest reading through them to get to my better works, but never at the cost of pretending a story can be "supplemented" as such.
That's just cheapening your time, and mine.
Well, I think that finishes this up. Nothing more occurs to me.
Oh, one thing does: I've been rereading backlogs of writers since well . . . new stuff ain't doing it for me so much. I've gotten through most of my favorite writer's entire lists. Are there any writers I should glance through? Red stories only please, I'm not as forgiving as I was when I was a forum personality.
Also any Trilby stories I haven't read: would be nice to know which were less heavy on the repetition and more on the required reading list! So your blogger is begging for things to read during her recovery so she can give you more to read. Indulge her.
Well, thats a wrap. Love all of you my fans, and wish me a happy 21st birthday on Tuesday :)
~Madam Kistulot
Labels: EMCSA, grammar, rambling, reviews, Silver Girl, Update, Writing
posted by Madam Kistulot at
3:06 PM
4 Comments:
Wishing you a very happy birthday in advance, Rinni. May it bring you joy and Silver.
THANK YOU!!! *gasping in laughter* "...elfen surprise nudity..." is sigline worthy, and it feels deliciously perfunctory. 'Elfen' does have linguistic precedent, though; from what I glanced it looks like Sara was trying to construct a story with an archaic flavor. But I'll be damned if it worked for readers with real standards. She must get off on Nymph's Lovecraftian blasphemy.
Although Sara's writing style dues better accommodate fantasy. Better, not brilliant. That's one of my issues with her: no matter what she's writing, her style NEVER changes. Voice is one thing, but the type of language she uses, the way her characters talk, the way stories are constructed--it's all the same, from high fantasy to gritty cyberpunk, ALWAYS the same! I don't think she knows HOW to write in different styles, let alone understands the process well enough to realize she should try.
Thank you for saying everything I've been twitching to say! Jo-sorts don't seem to think any one who hasn't posted at least a dozen stories has any right to negatively comment on the writing of others.
Some of your stories and posts contain embarrassing technical errors. But those errors don't make me doubt your skill as a writer. Your stories and points are solid enough to speak for themselves. I think that's a reliable way to tell whether a writer is good or weak. When technical weaknesses scream louder than a story, there probably isn't much of a story. Her writing is weak. Her stories are overblown. I wish people weren't so easily fooled by big words, plot gaps, attempted complex grammar, and sex dappling an otherwise common storyline. The Left Behind series is coming to mind, which I know is entirely too harsh . . .
Omega Girl really is a great series, even with so many flaws. I wish the second story hadn't offended me so deeply. I'd love to be able to read the rest. The crossover will be badass! Second tier characters have their own sizzle!
You'll be fine coming out of rust, Sweetie. You know what you hate in a story and you've been able to tell in the past when something was truly bad. I wouldn't let you post something awful, either! You don't write awful stories; you write awful drafts sometimes...huuuuge difference. Get your steam back with the fan fic and then sink back into your own much better stuff.
You're right, though: writing must stand on its own. There is no excuse for bad or weak writing. In fact, if Sara can type those serpentine stories on a PDA, she can take the time to set them aside for a few days to glance back over them or even rewrite portions of them. Hell, she could write shorter works to keep up writing without producing dreck. I have to admire her tenacity in writing such lengthy things with complex language from a device and setting as limiting as hers, but... OUCH. Still no excuse! She didn't write well before and she sure as fuck doesn't now. Jo's admitted corruption is evident, but that's not Sara's biggest problem. And what kind of writer worth her words lets someone else do that to her work...? I know you'd never let me get away with that! EDITING is one thing, polishing and clarifying. Rewriting needs to be done by the WRITER, and even certain technical changes can dramatically change the meaning in ways able to effect the rest of the story.
...getting a little of my own rant out...
AStrangeGeek's catalogue might be worth perusing. His stuff isn't all red but you know he's good based on "Incompatibility". Sadly the taste of even the glowing authors can be lacking, but peering at the Picks of authors you like might yield a gem or two. I was going to suggest reading 8-bit's older work, but he pulled it... Wah! WHY? I was enjoying one of his older stories before non-story things distracted me! Have you read all of Thrall's work?
You could always reread your own stuff . . . *runs away to hide in her mug!*
*deep breath* Long comment! Apologies. I adored this post, though, every last word! You will be bribed with ice cream in the future since such bribing results in posts like this.
As far as Jo's influence goes, I saw her "corrected a few typos and added in a few missing words" version of a friend's story - not a list of proposed changes; a draft complete unto itself. After running a diff on it, I looked through and found rather more substantial changes than she'd suggested (as well as some glaring typos she'd missed), with a general pattern to the changes - where she'd changed something, there generally was a problem with the original, but the new version showed that Jo had missed the intended point of the original, so was reinforcing an alternate meaning, or outright changing it... Anyway, the points are that 1) without doing a direct comparison (or knowing every word of the original) it's hard to tell what Jo's done to a piece, even when she describes her changes. 2) while she can usually spot problems, she can't fix them.
Gaaaah! A rant reply to a rant! My bandwith can only take so much, valbot ;)
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