Day 3

[sgatazmy]

I forgot to post yesterday! Eeek. So that's only 2 days in a row. Maybe, instead, I should just count how many I manage in a week?

I haven't read or written much. SGA fanfic lately has mostly not caught my attention, despite being what I crave. I went back and reread my own because I guess I write stories to be able to read what I can't find. This one was A Good Enough Timeline.

It's one my favorite fics because it has Rodney in the future trying to once again change the past to try and save Elizabeth. Only the timeline isn't bad. The Wraith are defeated. John and Rodney are partners. Atlantis is a growing metropolis with lots of people living there from many different planets. So John has to try and stop Rodney. I'm told it's almost like a philosophy book, asking the question: What is a Good Enough Timeline?

I like it also because I get Rodney in handcuffs and the brig. :)

It also has my favorite John and Rodney part where John says: "You’ve convinced yourself that you’re the hero here, valiantly risking everything to save a friend. I get that. But you’ve got it all wrong. Right now, you’re the villain, desperately trying to change the past by risking the lives of everyone here and now."

I may be reading in order to avoid writing. But tonight is my writing group!  I'm excited and hopeful I can finally manage another chapter of my story. 

Let's see what else? 

I gotta clean the house. Eeeeeek. This will not be easy.

On the reading front, I think a lot of reasons I'm struggling to read the current fics coming out, is a lot of them are using a passive voice. I want to offer some of them to be a beta, but I don't think that would come off well. I think in the past that I didn't care as much, but now it's just so hard to read past that. I also struggle to read most works shorter than 1k words because I just can't get into the scene enough to be there. At least I am getting to beta a fantastic story right now. In fact...I think I'll go do that right now.

Comments

[goddess47]

At some point, I'd be interested in hearing more about your writing group. You seem to have started it, so what prompted you to do that. How many people is a good number? What kind if fics do you share? Do you meet in person or online? That sort of thing.

I joined an existing writing group and, I think it's a good thing but we all have *very* different genres that we write in. There's fiction and non-fiction and fantasy and everything in-between. I'm the only fanfiction person but I have an AU fic that I'm working on to bring to the group so they don't need canon info to know the story...

Yeah. Housecleaning... blech!

[sgatazmy]

When I was young, my teachers told my parents that I was only able to learn to cook and clean. The finny thing is that I have an academic career and I suck at cleaning.

The writing group is specifically an in person AO3 writing group. We have about 7 members and we are all in different fandoms (although three of us love mzdzs.). In fact one person from sga discord is coming so that makes two people who like sga there :). I just started it because I needed some joy. This will be our second meeting.

We socialize while playing with AO3 magnets, do a warm-up game, write with a timer, socialize, the. write again. There’s food. So far we have not shared our writing.

I’m lucky enough my neighbor and I both do podfic and fanfic (she podficced a few of my stories) so that helped get it started. We each knew a few people who love AO3.

[melagan]

I have a hard time reading in the fandom I'm writing in at the time. So, while I'm working on my SGA story, I'm reading in The Sentinel or Discworld books or other fandoms that catch my eye.

a lot of them are using a passive voice. That's common and easy to fall into. In my own writing, I look for how many times I've used the word was then try to find a more active way to write the sentence.

Please let us know how things go with your writing group. I think it's awesome that you're doing this.

[sgatazmy]

Oh, that's a good idea to read in a different fandom than you are reading. I sometimes read certain books when I need a reset.

I fall into passive voice, definitely, but I usually can catch it in revisions. I'm more tolerant of it when I read other fics than when I read mine, but it's been grating at me lately. Which is annoying because I think fanfic writers should just write and they don't need to worry about those details if they don't want to or haven't learned it yet.

I do try to replace "was" because that's a big one with passive voice. "Had" is also an issue. Sometimes you need it, but nearly every time it will throw your reader out of the scene you are in.

[melagan]

"Had" is also an issue. Sometimes you need it...

should have a - Be used with caution - sign. or should have had a... Just kidding.