starwatcher | Entries tagged with writing

In a writing discussion on Reddit, I admitted,

When I'm stumped for a word, my brain tosses me a $50 vocabulary word, when the feel of the entire fic is at a $5-word level, or $10-word at most. I'm talking about fixating on something like "erroneous" when "wrong" is perfectly acceptable in context.

But even when I know there is lower-level vocabulary available, that is more appropriate, and I know I know those words... I can't recall them!!! So I use this technique -- I search for synonyms of the high-falutin' word until I find the simpler word that's appropriate.

I've said it many times -- Brains are weird.

But here's the thing -- I've always used thesaurus.com or dictionary.com and I've been quite satisfied. But under the original post, several people mentioned WordHippo and several others enthusiastically seconded the site, so I took a look. Blown. A. Way!!!

I input "erroneous" since that was my example. The page that came up listed seven definitions (Lacking in accuracy or truth /or/ Not based on sound reasoning or judgment for example), and each definition had a minimum of 15 synonyms, and some had more than 50!

So -- if you write, whether it's fanfic, company reports, or whatever, WordHippo looks like a very useful site. Know any high school or college students? Point them at WordHippo. I'm all for working as efficiently as possible. <grin>

... about dating terminology.

I know that the U.K (and Europe?) writes dates as day-month-year, so 6 June 1972, for example. (Or should it be 6th June?) But how do you say it in words? Is it --

"Six June" or

"Sixth June" or

"Sixth of June"?

The thing is, when I format stories for my iPad, I change written numbers to the number words if they occur in dialogue. So, "I'll be there in two hours," not "in 2 hours."

I'm currently formatting a couple of Harry Potter stories, and there are dates sprinkled throughout the dialogue in both stories. And I want them to be correct. One story is written by a European, so the written forms are U.K-standard (I think), but the other is written by an American, so I need to fix them. Just as I know that Harry would use a lift in Muggle London, rather than an elevator (and I'll make that change if necessary), I want dates to be spoken correctly, too.

I'm deeply grateful for any guidance you can offer.

I understand the purpose of tags on stories at AO3 (or any archive). It's convenient to be able to avoid things you're not in the mood for (Violence, Character Death), or to search for the things you're interested in (Friendship, Comfort).

OTOH, I'm quite aggravated by frivolous tags that are [a] irrelevant to the story and/or [b] almost boastful about deficiencies (I wrote this instead of sleeping, I don't know what I was thinking, No beta we die like men). And dear lord, spare me from "wall-o'-tags", where there are so many listed -- most in sentences instead of two explanatory words -- that it's impossible (for me, anyway) to see or find the tags that might actually be useful. But I can't change other peoples' habits, so I try to ignore the aggravation.

My problem is, when I'm trying to tag my own stories usefully, my mind goes blank. If I had a list, I could see what fits and what doesn't. Or sometimes a tag-term leads me gently to another good tagging idea. Frankly, I have blind spots about some tags, like "Angst". I know what angst is, and for goodness sake, the first Yahoo Group I joined for The Sentinel fandom was "SentinelAngst". But I don't recognize it unless it's named. I might say that the story has 'misunderstandings' or 'emotional content' or 'hurt feels'... but 'angst' never crosses my mind.

Not that it was ever much of a problem for me; my stories were about 97% - 100% angst-free. (LOL, I kept expecting to be thrown off the list, because my dues stories had so little angst content.) I just... expect adults to talk to each other, and wrote that into my stories.

BUT! I'm currently helping a friend move some lost stories (but I have Word copies on my HD that we can use) to AO3, and I just about blew a gasket trying to suggest tags. And she really needs the 'angst' tag, with several of its permutations. (She wasn't the 'Queen of Angst', but was definitely a part of the royal court. <g>) Which I didn't remember until I started making a list.

I spent several hours this afternoon tracking down non-fandom-specific AO3 tags and arranging them by headings. There's a page of 'most popular tags' at AO3, but the setup doesn't work for me. AO3 does have a nice 'autofill' feature -- start typing 'friend', and you get a list of possible tags that fit. But [a] first you have to have an idea where to start, and [b] the list seems to cut off after 20 possibilities, and doesn't always include all tags relevant to that term.

So I have produced two tables -- one of "Parent Tags" (very general terms that will lead to more specific tags) and one of "Sub-Tags" (a partial list generated by each parent tag). Neither of these are comprehensive; I selected only the tags I'm likely to use or search for (which rules out things like 'death' and 'blood'), and left out tags that so obvious that anyone who writes a story will be able to think of it (sex, porn).

Now, with my big-sister "share with everyone" impulse, I offer my tag-list tables to anyone who might find them useful. Feel free to copy and/or share wherever you want. And if you feel that I've left out some really useful tag or tags, please let me know. If I feel the same, I'll be happy to add them.

( Two Tables Below )

Crossposts: https://starwatcher307.livejournal.com/511493.html

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... which is all fanfic is, right?

Now, she's talking about creative writing in the classroom, but a great deal seems applicable to other efforts. In Toward Changing the Language of Creative Writing Classrooms, Helen Betya Rubinstein says, I am convinced that we can teach creative writing without the language of failure or success, criticism or praise.

and

“Write the story (or essay, or poem) you want to read in the world.” My courses begin with this invitation for students to create their own goals: for the student who loves being entertained to figure out how to entertain; for the student who loves difficult prose to examine how such work engages him.

and

“But I want to know if people liked what I wrote,” students might plead. I’ll ask what they mean by “like.” “If they wanted to keep reading,” one says. “If they feel moved,” says another. These are qualities we can discuss without risking that the writer’s objectives are obscured. “You don’t believe that Faulkner is good and Danielle Steele bad?” is another question I’ve heard. I point out that different people — or the same person, on different days — might choose to read one author instead of the next. Their bodies of literature fulfill different needs.

It reminded me of long-ago complaints that used to circulate occasionally in fandom, that not enough fanfic authors were doing it "right". (Or maybe not so long ago; since I never became comfortable with Tumblr and Twitter, maybe they just occurred out of my sight.) Such complaints used to make me seethe; I even made a long post about it once: My Semi-Annual (?) Fandom Rant, in which I argued (at length!) that people could write what and how they damn well want to write.

In other words -- nothing new to see, here. I just liked reading "official" (ha!) confirmation of my beliefs, and thought others might be interested in the same article.

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Crossposts: https://starwatcher307.livejournal.com/478367.html

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I'm still wrestling with this one; maybe someone will have some helpful thoughts about it.

I first noticed it when reading NCIS fandom, then realized I also see it in Sentinel and SGA fandoms, and others that I don't know so well, so it doesn't bug me as much.

What is 'it', you ask? 'It' is the use of people's names. Take a look --

Tony. Abby. Ziva. McGee.

Jim. Megan. Henri. Sandburg. (Or, Blair. Megan. Henri. Ellison.)

Do you see the disconnect? First names for every character but one. It grates on my nerves.

Yes indeed, many times surnames are appropriate. If Jim or Simon are speaking to Blair, they usually call him 'Sandburg'. Similarly, if the paragraph is in their POV -- we're basically eavesdropping on their thoughts -- the use of 'Sandburg' would be appropriate.

But if the paragraph is in narrator POV, I'm starting to feel that making all the names match is appropriate -- either call everyone by their first names, or by their surnames, but don't mix-n-match. Of course, there needs to be some judgement -- or maybe understanding of cannon -- applied; 'Gibbs' will always be 'Gibbs' unless Ducky is speaking to him, or he's in an intimate situation, even when the others are Tony, Abby, and Tim. But did the use of 'Tim' jar anybody? He's almost always referred to as 'McGee' in story narration, even when the others are named as 'Abby', 'Tony', 'Kate', or 'Ziva'. Yes, he's called 'McGee' when others are speaking to him, or of him, but in narrative passages, it seems unbalanced when everyone's first name is used except his. (And Jimmy Palmer, ditto, but he's less often a major part of the story.)

This really hit me about a year ago. I was reading in another fandom; the author had paired two minor canon characters. These characters do not have first names in canon, so the author gave them names she liked -- let's call them Barry Window and Stanley Door. If the characters are at work, people refer to them as Window and Door. When they're in informal circumstances, hanging out with each other or friends, they're Barry and Stanley. That makes sense.

But I think too many of us authors have absorbed (probably through osmosis) the idea that if the same name is used too often it's 'wrong'... or maybe 'clunky'. That can lead to the use of too many epithets ('the younger man', 'the blond' {in H50} etc.), which is often decried. In another workaround that doesn't really work, we get the same man referred to as 'Barry' and 'Window' in the same situation / paragraph. If the other character is also referred to as 'Stanley' and 'Door' in the same situation / paragraph, it quickly starts to feel very crowded, and the reader isn't always sure who's doing what.

It really hit me as I was reading the sex scene; Barry was doing things with Door, and Stanley reciprocated with Window, then Door acted upon Window, and Stanley reciprocated on Barry, and it started to sound like an orgy instead of a loving encounter between two men. Argh!

So, it's made me go back and consider my own stories. I don't have too many instances of 'same-man-by-two-names-in-one-paragraph', but they are there. I'm currently going through the stories posted at AO3 to fix that, then I plan to re-edit my unposted stories, and finally get them up.

Anyway, I'm now in the middle of "Moving Forward" (third of the Letters Trilogy), where Jim and Blair are talking on the phone. The mood is... let's say 'cautiously intimate'; Jim wants to convince Blair to come home earlier than planned. Jim will say "Sandburg" or "Chief". A descriptive narration will call him "Blair". But there are lines where I'm not sure if it's more narrative (Blair) or eavesdropping on Jim's thoughts (Sandburg). On the other hand, Jim is desperate to have his partner / friend / guide back; I can see him thinking "Blair", even though his mouth keeps saying "Sandburg" because that's how ex-military, law-enforcement people are used to talking to each other.

<sigh> Is a puzzlement; I'm scratching my head about it (figuratively), but I expect it'll all come out in the wash. If nothing else, because most readers won't have this as one of their minor peeves, and so won't even notice if I use one or the other name in a 'wrong' place. (It's not like this disconnect makes me back out of a story, but I confess to pasting some favorites into Word and 'equalizing' the use of names when I know I'll want to reread the story many times.)

As part of the re-edit process that doesn't require a whole post, I'm also taking a strong look at my use of the dash, and using a comma or semicolon instead when it's appropriate. Not that a dash is necessarily wrong but, like everything else, they can be overdone. I mean, look above -- just in this short(ish) post, there are seven uses of the dash! (This one makes 8. But I just edited and got rid of 2 others.) As I look back at my stories... boy, I did love me some dashes, didn't I? Even if I only get rid of 20% of them, it'll make the story look a little smoother / better / more professional.

And, of course, all of this is very subjective; I'll bet 10 different people would have 5 or 6 different ideas about what is most appropriate. I guess that's why writing is an art form rather than a science. <g>
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Crossposts: https://starwatcher307.livejournal.com/476645.html

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(StarWatcher hides under the bed; her muse has been uncooperative in recent months.)

According to their writeup - "Ever read a fic where the story's going great, only suddenly you're lost in a quagmire of angst or porn or description of the ebbing sea, that's gone on for three thousand words and shows no sign of getting back to the story?" The Plot Without Porn Ficathon on LiveJournal will post stories from August 13th to 20th. Any fandom, and you can suggest a prompt, write to a prompt, or just wing it. Sign-ups are still open.

(Thanks to

ninetydegrees for passing on the word.)
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I recently asked if anyone knew Jim's call sign.

aerianya told me that he used one-zebra-one in "Cypher", and a check of the transcript proved her right.

jya_bd_cp_ttgb thought it might be David-five-two, from "Warriors", but I couldn't find it in the transcript. I'll keep an ear out, though; it might occur in another episode.

But this morning I was watching "The Real Deal", and I heard Jim say "Unit Echo-Seven, responding." Wait, what? A check of the transcript proves that I didn't mis-hear.

Good grief! Why do I bother to do research? We now have two birthdates for Jim, two names for his mother, and two (maybe three) official call signs. As fanfic authors, we'd be laughed of the 'net is we made such gaffes -- or at least told that we needed to correct the inaccuracy.

I remember the first fic I beta'd for Arianna -- My Sentinel. As a backstory, she had Jim and Blair using the "dials" much earlier than in canon. I told her, "No, Blair didn't dream up the dials until Out of the Past, episode 12" -- so she reworked the story to make everything fit with canon.

If we can do it, why can't they? Is it really so difficult, or so expensive, to maintain a "show bible" so that writers of new episodes can use the same information that came up earlier? Sheesh!

Meanwhile, my new story is [a] already written and sent to the recipient and [b] set early in Jim and Blair's partnership, so I'll leave the one-zebra-one when I post it. Maybe someday someone will write a fic that explains the change in call signs.

::starwatcher grumbles quietly into her beard::
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Hey, folks, I'm stumped. American English is so varied across the country that I may not be aware of some terms that are actually common usage in regions I'm not familiar with. My problem is, I don't want to reject a term for being "too Brit" when it's actually regular usage in some areas of the country.

It seems common for British-English speakers to refer to the university as "the U". (EG -- "I'll be at the U until noon.") But I have never heard it from an American-English speaker.

{Edit - my bad. Because I hadn't heard an American use it, I assumed it was British. Just goes to show how much I didn't know.}

So -- do you know of some regions where that terminology is used in America? Or am I correct in thinking that it's totally a Brit thing, and would not be spoken by an American character?

ETA: LOLOL! From all the responses, it appears that both 'U' and 'Uni' are either regional and/or generational, and that the terms spread across America, Canada, Britain, and Australia -- again, often depending upon region and/or age of the person speaking. And, as

starshine24mc suggests, their use may also be a factor of how casual the conversation is, and how well the speakers know each other.

So, I learned something -- I was sure it wasn't American. Thank you all for your input.
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So, it's going around my my flist. (Has anyone ever noticed how much a 'meme' acts like a 'virus'?) I caught this one from

castalie.

( Read more... )

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HAPPY NEW YEAR, FOLKS!

I'll raise a toast (plain apple juice or grape juice) and hope that this a good year for all of us, and a damn sight better than the last year for many of us.

So, another year, another "Year in Writing Meme". I should be cleaning up the post-Christmas mess, but what the hey.

( Cut, so the table won't screw up friends' pages. )

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What song? The one that says there's nothing wrong with writing fanfic, verse 5? 6?

From

metafandom, I read

scheherezhad explaining that writing fanfic IS using talent, dammit!

Some excerpts, because I want them at my fingertips --

I do not "waste" talent on fanfic. The only way to waste talent is to do nothing with it. I like to use mine to do something that makes me happy. And by a lovely coincidence, it makes other people happy, too. Every time I post a fic, I put something of myself on display in hopes that a few people in mass of complete strangers will consider reading it as time well spent, and just maybe they'll leave a comment to say so.

[snip]

See, what it is all about for me is the characters, and their relationships. [snip] My fics are the end product of hours of discussion about characters, and hours of work trying to do them justice on the page. What you see is a tiny fraction of the process.

[snip]

Basically, what I wanted to say is that fanworks are worth something, and you don't have to like {it}, but don't you dare tell me the time, effort, and love I put into writing it doesn't make it "real" writing. Capice?

So, I repeat, sing it, sister! And add, she shoots, she scores! YAAAAYYYYYY! :::starwatcher does an ungainly but heartfelt pompom dance:::

In relevant news, my Secret Santa story just hit 10,000 words. I'll be wrapping it up soon, though. :::starwatcher begs the muse not to spin it out for another 5,000:::
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So... do you support the writers' strike, but are a wee bit fuzzy on the details? :::raises hand sheepishly::: This post has links to lots of LJs and Blogs -- many from people in the industry -- with details, breakdowns, and explanations.

Latest news is, talks may resume on Monday. Meanwhile, there is an online petition that you can sign (and comment, if you choose) in support of the writers. Right now, it's just shy of 60,000 signatures. Spread the word among your various fandoms -- it takes just a couple of minutes, and costs nothing. Wouldn't it be great if it could hit 100,000 by Monday? If TPTB see that the fans support the writers, rather than the corporate heads, they may be more reasonable in their expectations -- and an end to the strike in the next couple of weeks could rescue our favorite shows, giving us maybe 4/5ths of a season, instead of only 1/2. I'm crossing my fingers.

There are some other 'support the writers' initiatives detailed and linked in the post, if you're interested, and have the time and/or money.

Meanwhile, I'm off to see the folks for Thanksgiving. My story has hit 6,000 words; my new estimate is 10,000. Y'all have a good next several days, whether or not you're celebrating anything specific. See you in a day or two.
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So, I'm working on my Secret Santa story. No title, yet (not that I could tell you what it was, but usually I've come up with one by now). I think I know where I'm going, but I have even less clue than usual how I'll get there -- and that's saying something.

I don't think it gives anything away to admit that the story is slash -- all of the participants requested slash of one kind or another. When I saw that, I told Ainm that I could probably write a low-key slash, but I specified that it would have to be 'X', since I was pretty sure I couldn't do 'Y' -- too complicated. So, Ainm paired me up with someone who would like either 'X' or 'Y', and a prompt that would usually be right up my alley.

So what does the muse do to me? First I have to wrestle her to the ground to get her to cough up an idea -- sheesh! -- and then she makes it a big, fat, honkin' 'Y'-story. You know, the kind I assured Ainm I wouldn't be able to do?

*headdesk* or maybe, *facepalm*

Whatever. I've just hit 3,000 words, out of maybe... 8,000? But I have less than three weeks to finish, with time off to visit my folks for Thanksgiving. Gotta get crackin'.

I've been writing sporadically this evening -- also trying to find stuff on YouTube for next week -- and left the boys in the middle of a scene. But it's 11:15, I haven't eaten my apple yet (acid reflux prevention), and I can't type one-handed. But, in the words of Scarlett O'Hara, tomorrow is another day.
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Hey, folks! Remember all the neat stories we got from Secret Santa last year? Do you know how much fun it is to read a story written just for you? (Lots, I assure you.)

Unfortunately,

ainm doesn't have a magic wand to wave; she can't make it happen all by herself. We need writers to join us, and maybe --

Ainm, have you thought about artists? Does anyone have any art they'd like to see, any artists or manippers out there who can make someone's wishes come true? Just a thought.

Yanking this back on topic, time's a-wastin'; so far we only have ten authors signed up, and the deadline is late tomorrow. Really, don't you want to sign up? It's a big playground, with room for everybody...
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Okay,

princessofg linked to this post by

cesperanza; she talks about identification and objectification in fandom and fanfic. Very interesting as the various comments examined it from all sides.

But what I liked most was the link to

tightropegirl's essay, where she suggests (once again) that we should be writing for love, not for other people's expectations.

( Excerpts in here. )

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I was going through my "Jokes" folder today, and found these timely hints for self-improvement of writing skills. I have so many writers on my flist; you might find a nugget or two that helps you polish your work, or nudges you to avoid the occasional bad habit.

( Here you go! )

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One of my non-TS friends is working on a plot bunny and needs to know, How does emergency services answer the phone when you call the emergency number in England? Since I have so many nice folks from England on my flist, I figured one of you could help. Anyone?

BTW, the number is 999, right?
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Remember my last post? Now,

cupidsbow has a list of links to people who have posted their reactions to her views. I found it odd, in the comments to CB's original post, that so many people jumped on the "making money" point, when it ~~was~~ seemed to me to be the least important of the points she made. She spent 9/10ths of the post highlighting how fanfic is marginalized and gets no respect, and speculating on the connection to wider issues of feminism and suppressing women's writing, and 1/10th suggesting that maybe it would be different if fanfic authors could be paid. Whoo! Comments of outrage! <g> As well as many thoughtful comments on the broader issues she discussed, and some that examined the monetary issue dispassionately. (The overall feeling -- as I read it -- seems to be that, yes, money would be nice, but it would have very negative consequences on fandom and fanfiction.)

( So, I wrote a response to one of them, responding to (once again) Why We Write Fanfic. )

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Not mine; other people's. A bit of explanation, with links ( in here... )

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Here's a guide to Creating ~~a Mary Sue~~ the Best Ever Character. It shows us how to instill our character with all the perfectly positive points that will cause her to leap off the page and capture the hearts of our readers. And it's illustrated! You can't go wrong!

Or, you know, it's a self-check to help us avoid writing total drek.

Note -- not dialup friendly. I suggest right-click, open in new window, then use your first browser window to surf LJ for a while. Have fun.
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Before I started writing, I ~~never~~ seldom noticed these little idiocies...

On the Sleuth channel, Simon and Simon is on from 5 - 6 AM (my time). I tape it, so that I can watch from 6 - 7 while I get ready for work.

So -- S & S just saved some high mucky-muck in a spectacular fashion. It's being reported on the evening news. The newscaster says (about the HMM), "I spoke with ... although he had no comment, his voice was choked with emotion."

:::snort::: I wonder how one recognizes a 'voice choked with emotion' when nothing has been said?

I must say, I wouldn't let one of "my" writers get away with that; sloppy, very sloppy. :::StarWatcher tsks in annoyance::: You'd think all the professionals involved would have noticed, somewhere along the line. More and more, I have to watch TV with increasingly large doses of suspended disbelief.
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...especially while the British PM carries the name "Blair". It can lead to finding 'Net headlines like this --

Secret Memo Warns Blair of Crime Wave

Plot bunny, anyone? Maybe a former student of Blair's (our version) who isn't too happy about being in the family business (mafia or something similar) has an attack of conscience and gives Blair a heads-up about some upcoming shenanigans....

:::sigh::: Maybe one of these days I'll be inspired to try to write something approaching a case study; this could be fun.
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And the writers, and anyone who's ever tried to make kids do their homework --

http://www.overduemedia.com/archive.aspx?strip=20061106

<g> I printed it out and I'm passing it around to all the English teachers in all the schools.
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Well, the results of

dolimir_k's Bulwer-Lyttony contest are in. My entry got one other vote besides mine (Thanks,

sallymn!), but I'm still rather proud of it. I wrote --

Damn, thought Blair as he ducked down behind the circular casting of poured concrete, destined, perhaps, for use as a culvert under some unnamed, distant highway, but now serving as a comforting barrier from the bullets whizzing around as Jim, inevitably, fought it out with the Sapotti brothers, maybe I need to rethink this whole sentinel/guide deal, but he knew, as he replaced the clip in his weapon, that he could never walk away from his sentinel; he was in it for better or for worse, and ain't that a helluva note, he concluded as he rose to rejoin his partner in their efforts to protect the city from the perils that would harm its citizens, regardless of the form those dangers took. (word count = 124)

How about that? ONE sentence, and it's longer than a drabble; I'm so proud. <g> As I told Sally, I might need to use that as the start of an actual story -- suitably edited and punctuated, of course. Especially those poured-concrete culvert-pieces -- there are half-a-dozen of them sitting in the side yard of some business that I pass each day on the way to and from work. I've thought that they'd make great bullet-protection, and wondered if I could work them into a story...

But back to the contest. The winning entry belongs to

betrue. She wrote --

Under the roaring sun, in the middle of the Western Kansas delegation to North Dakota's Eastern Southern Blueberry Conference, shaded by a candy-striped awning that fluttered in the April wind like an umbrella that knew it had been unfurled too late to save anyone from a downpour, sat a group of two girls (or rather, young ladies, as they are in the habit of demanding to be called), four boys, three men and three women (one man and one woman of whom were African-American, but whom we shouldn't assume are a couple, even though they are, two of whom are red-headed women, one of whom is a tall blond man, and one of whom is a graying storekeeper), and one more strange bald boy (who would also have been a red-head if he had hair, which he didn't, though it doesn't matter why), sat in various positions of attentiveness and disinterest on a quilt as tattered as the sleeves of the shirts from which it has been hand-stitched by one of the red-headed women during a long winter storm only six years earlier, and attempted not to appear as if some of them were eyeing the Jelloed ® ™ and Cool Whipped ® desserts of other people (in other groups, who had won their own regional championships and been sent on to the quarterfinals of the First National Northern Blueberry Dessert Jim-Jamboree) that were deflating in the sun like day-old cow pies instead of the fluffy berry kind, in preparation for the second round of competitions, scheduled to be held later that evening if the electricity problem could be sorted out before all the young folk got bored and started flirting as openly as two of the five young men in this group has been doing, if one were to go by the candy-red, pleasure-soaked apple-cheeks of the dark-haired boy and the smirkily smug accomplishment on the face of the bald boy who had pressed far too close to him in the opinion of the beautiful and popular, raven-haired heroine of our story, whom I forgot to mention earlier. (word count = 349)

Isn't that awesome? Although, I confess, it took me about four readings to ingest all the information; my eyes crossed as I tried to read. This is why we have punc-tu-a-tion, including the judicious use of periods.

Hmmm... I think I should show some English teachers the Lyttony site; they could use those as examples of bad writing, and have their students "fix" them.
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I'd forgotten, until

dolimir_k reminded us this morning, that she's holding her second annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest. I'm very late -- forgot all about it, frankly. Then Dolimir posted this morning to remind us that there's less than a day to submit entries. I shrugged; Oh, well, I'll pass this year. Ah! Challenge to the muse! She sat me down and we wrote a truly excruciating sentence, over 100 words long; I'm so proud! <g>

If you feel the urge to participate -- com'on, it's only one sentence -- you can click on the link above.

For newcomers to my journal, I've copy/pasted last year's posts -- the explanation of Bulwer-Lytton, links to winners and entries for previous years of the national contest, and my previous offerings.

( All behind the cut. )

After the voting is done, I'll post this year's sentence here. It's equally as bad (or as good) as the previous ones I've written. And now I'm wondering -- should I add these to my writing journal, or will I scare away potential readers if they actually open the link?
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Hey, all you Sentinel fans of the writerly persuasion --

People had a lot of fun with Secret Santa last year, and we fans were treated to some quality fic. Now,

ainm is trying to do the same thing with

ts_secret_santa, but the response has been lukewarm.

So I'm shaking the official Sentinal Pom-poms^(tm). Slide over and tell Ainm that you'll participate. The requirements aren't stringent -- minimum of 1000 words, don't have to "turn it in" until Nov. 29th, and most of the requests are very general.

Besides -- we need somebody who only wants a gen or PG-slash story; otherwise I won't be able to fill any requests.
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A friend of a friend asked us to spam her friend's journal, because said friend (that's the friend of the third part) was trying to get 1000 comments to celebrate her 1000th entry.

::StarWatcher peers at sentence above, wondering if it makes any sense at ALL::

What do you say to a perfect stranger? I go to my Jokes folder and pull something out, copy and paste.

I happened to find a list of metaphors and similies that had been culled from stories submitted from an actual High School Creative Writing class. Now, I'm never sure which is simile or which is metaphor, but they can be very effective. I remember one where the "calm, sensible Sandburg blew through the doors to Major Crime like a ship under full sail, running before a freshening gale". (Or something like that; I thought I knew the author, but can't find it, dammit.)

These efforts by kids in High School are not so well realized. Actually, they fall under the heading of, "I hope I've never written so inappropriately." But, they are a lot of fun.

SPEW WARNING!! Do not eat or drink while reading.

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a thigh master.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

He spoke with wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She grew on him like E. coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef.

She had a deep throaty genuine laugh like that sound a dog makes just before he throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad, as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a six foot three inch tree.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge free ATM.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7 pm instead of 7:30.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

The hailstones leaped up off the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star crossed lovers raced across a grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resemble Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.

Even in his last years, grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

Young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

"Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a landmine or something.

The Ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids with power tools.

He was deeply in love when she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

She was as easy as the TV guide crossword.

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Her voice had that tense grating quality, like a generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightening.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

::gasp, wheeze:: Re-reading these, I thought of voting for the worst/funniest -- but there's no way I could decide, or expect anybody else to so so.

ETA: I'm getting responses to this list in the other journal. One writes --

Now...I'm thinking that these are so brilliant that a challenged needs to be issued:

Take one line from the list above and write a drabble-ish length crack!fic based around it. Make sure to include the line in the fic. Bonus points if it makes complete sense.

Hmmm... It might be fun, if one is so inclined. Or, it might be a great

sentinel_thurs challenge. Terry, Mouse -- if you want to use it sometime, feel free.
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The past couple of times I visited my friend

cindyrama, she's wanted to see my vacation pictures. I have multiple pictures of gulls, pelicans, some egrets, and a few cranes because I spent so much time near the water. I even managed to get a sea lion poking his nose up to breathe, in a couple of pics. Seein the variety of poses sparked her creativity; she's planning out a children's story, to be illustrated with some of the pictures.

That started something started the wheels turning in my brain. The misty forest jumped out and screamed that it was just perfect for my story. Originally, I planned to use it as it was. Then the evil little worm said, "Wouldn't it be nice if you could insert a sidesaddle rider into that picture?" Success!

Then yesterday, it occurred to me that I have LOTS (as in literally, hundreds) of photo folders. I realized that I have other pics that would illustrate the story as well...

( In here. )

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I have some pictures from a trip to Yosemite Forest with Arianna in 2004 that I'm intending to use to illustrate my story. It was a misty day, and I've used a bit of photoshopping to enhance that effect.

But that's not the thing I'm most proud of. I wanted a lady on sidesaddle riding into the mist. Found a suitable image on the Internet (it only took three hours of searching!) and, for the first time ever, managed to meld a piece of one picture with another one! :: StarWatcher buffs her fingernails on her shirt:: It's a bit crude, but passable.

( Wanna see? )

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And I'm bad for giving in to her.

In another LJ, a commenter mentioned that the current challenge in the Starsky and Hutch fandom is "make Starsky bleed". Her response to the idea was, "Ick."

Fair enough, and I completely understand. But then my muse jumped up and shouted, insisting that I craft a story that just barely kept to the letter of the challenge, and the spirit not at all. *g*

A few moments later, this drabble was on my word processor. (Yes, it was already so close -- 102 -- that I did enough playing around and editing to make it exactly 100 words. Such a chore! *g*) Please remember, I don't write S&H, so any resemblance to actual characterization is purely coincidental.

( If you're brave enough, read on. )

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There've been a couple of discussions on a mailing list recently. The gist of it has boiled down to "if you don't write what I like, it's not a good story", followed by "short stories are the bane of fandom, and only long stories are worthwhile". I think everyone who knows me knows that I'm growling quietly in my corner whenever I read either of those ideas.

This morning, I came across this post, in which the poster asks what people think of reusing bits of old stories or ideas in newer works. The question was perfectly low-key and non-offensive, but one phrase caught me short. She said --

I ask about pieces and parts of old fanfictions (and she specified an author using her own work) that have been re-adapted for new stories or new fandoms. Do you feel that writers have an obligation to constantly produce wholly new work to break them out of their comfort zones, or is it appropriate to disassemble and reassemble older pieces that didn't get quite the attention they deserved, thereby creating entirely new works?

That "obligation . . . new work . . . out of comfort zone" hit my blastoff button. After I answered her, I decided that I want to share my ideas with my flist. I wrote --

My writing -- short, "slice of life" stories -- doesn't lend itself to reuse of ideas. However, I see nothing wrong with recycling ideas and reworking them; as someone else commented, ideas are re-used all the time, from all kinds of places.

But, as a (sometime) writer, my hackles rose at this phrase -- writers have an obligation to constantly produce wholly new work to break them out of their comfort zones,

I hate, hate, HATE that some segments of fandom seem to regard authors as trained monkeys -- "Write what I want, the way I want it, and do it quicker and more often!!" Who the hell is collective fandom to insist that an author needs to "stretch", to "expand her repertoire", to "break out of the comfort zone" in order to produce "different, new and exciting" work? Long is not better than short, slash is not better than gen, case story is not better than hurt/comfort. Your favorite is not better than somebody else's favorite.

Writing is an intensely personal activity for most authors. Some have creativity with many different facets; they can write short, or long, or angst, or case, or humor, or whatever the hell they want. Some have creativity with only one or two facets, and all their stories follow a similar theme or style.

The thing is, the second type of author is not "wrong", and there's absolutely no reason to expect her to turn herself into the first type of author. For a writer whose comfort zone is only one path, trying to force herself into something that doesn't come naturally may encourage growth and development. Alternately, it may shut her down entirely as she throws up her hands, wails "I can't!", and either retires from trying to write, or moves to a new fandom which will appreciate her stories. Either way, her original fandom will feel the loss.

As a reader, I can choose to celebrate the comfort of knowing what "kind" of story I'll get from a limited-facet writer, and appreciate and enjoy the details that make each story different. Alternately, I can say, "Eh, I'm really not interested in this anymore," and go read another author. BUT, I do NOT have the right to say, "I don't like the kind of thing you write, so you need to write something different."

I don't care if an author "always" writes short, or PWP, or first time, or whatever floats her boat. If she's comfortable with it, happy with it, enjoys it -- more power to her. Some segments of her fandom will also find their boats floated, and eagerly reach for each new story she produces. The segments of her fandom who are not having their boats floated may go elsewhere, in search of other boats. Demanding that the builder of sailboats should start building fishing yachts instead will not only produce inferior fishing yachts, it will also deprive us of perfectly adequate sailboats.

The suggestion to "live and let live" is as valid today as it was when someone first coined the phrase. I just wish that collective fandom could agree on that simple little idea.
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kennedy_bowman was asking about spirit guides for a story she's working on, and I remembered a link I had saved. Since spirit guides are canon in Sentinel, many of us might be able to use this information somewhere along the line. So here's a site on shamanism, and the characteristics / attributes of the various spirit guides --

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4076/index1.html

I found it interesting that some of the most innocuous animals (to human eyes) can have very powerful psychic characteristics. It's kind of fun (and eye-opening) to browse through the animals, and find their "hidden meaning".

Here's to happy writing.
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The things we find by following links that other people leave in friends of friends journals...

An LJer by the name of SailorJim has reposted an article he wrote many years ago, in which an author muses on the proper way to describe the male appendage as Our Hero tries to complete an assignation with Our Heroine - is there a dignified way to get the point across? I think anyone who reads or writes sex scenes will enjoy this, and possibly learn something from it. Be warned - do NOT be eating or drinking anything as you read On the Subject of Penises... by Sailor Jim

ETA: Here's an alternate link in case the LJ is deleted. <g> I laughed all over again. There's just something about "boingy, boingy, boingy" that sets me off every time.
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I love this meme going around my flist; I've seen it from Caarianna, Jess Riley, Fluterbev, Alyburns, Kungfunurse, MSGordo, Ainm... well, I thought there had been more. Maybe I was fantasizing about the future? (*g*) I hope some of the others on flist will add theirs. (Arnie? Castalie? Terri? Audra Rose? Carodee? Kikkimax? LKY? Maaaaa? Orion? SpikedLuv?) Basically, I'd love to read what everyone thinks are the hallmarks of her fic.

So, I should add mine; I wonder if I can think of a whole ten.

ETA - as usual, once I got started, I couldn't shut up. I did twelve. (You knew that was coming, didn't you?)

( It's all in here, I hope. )

And now to add all of my friends' "Ten Ways" lists to memories. Not only is it fun, it might (as

ainm pointed out) help with the next SentinelSecrets guessing.
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So here I am at my folks' place in the post-Christmas quiet time. Dad had to go back to work today. After Mom and I chatted over breakfast (me) and ironing (her), she sat down to watch some of the shows she's missed and I sat down at Dad's computer to start my story. (The 'Dancing Queen' plotbunny was explained here.)

It's been a bit slow - the research and figuring out the timeline took a while, and I broke for lunch in town with Dad. (Red Lobster, deviled crab cakes and crab linguini in alfredo sauce. Yum!) Then home for more writing, followed by supper and several hands of cards (I lost), then more writing. But now it's past midnight, and I'm getting too tired to think; I need to pack it in.

But I'm quite pleased with how it's going - 1,986 words out of... maybe 6,000? (I'm soooo bad at estimating the finished length of my stories.) So hopefully, within a week or ten days - IE, before I go back to school on the 9th - you'll see it here. Tentative title is "Ships That Pass..." but that's subject to change.

Unfortunately, my computer is in the shop, hopefully to be fixed by Friday, but who knows? Meanwhile, thank goodness for the Internet; I can email the story to myself, and pick up where I left off when I get back to my computer again. Aren't I clever? ;-)

Good night folks; see you when I'm back in the land of the computer-enabled.
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I think everyone is aware that my fic-writing is sporadic, at best. I can't write in bits and pieces; I need a large block of time (two hours minimum, but three is better), preferably at the local pizza joint. That means that my writing opportunities are effectively reduced to weekends. But, real life being what it is - homework, housework, shopping, outdoor work, home repairs, reading, beta'ing - most weekends are also too busy for writing.

Fortunately, most of my plot-bunnies are quiet little beasts; they introduce themselves, then hop off to play together until I have time to select one and develop it. Occasionally, if I'm taking too long in noticing them, one or another will hop forward with wiggling nose and waving paw to remind me, then go back to playing again.

Let me backtrack a bit. Last year (May, 2004 is as close as I can pinpoint it), I made the following post to the Senad mailing list --

I'm still finding this "fan" thing freaky. No other fandom, for me, has been a tenth as strong as this one. It seems strange to me that I find so many ordinary bits of daily life leading to thoughts of The Sentinel. This just boggles my mind -- even sappy love songs (or angst songs) on the radio make me think of TS; it seems to pop up in my brain regardless of the circumstances. If I'm fixing fence -- "This would be a lot easier with Jim around." If I'm picking up trash along the road edges of my property -- "Blair could sure give a scathing diatribe about people's propensity to litter." And so on, and so on.

But this morning really blew my mind. I listen to the "oldies" radio station on my 20-minute drive to and from work each day. They started playing ABBA's "Dancing Queen." As I listened to

"She is the dancing queen,
Young and sweet, only seventeen..."

I flashed on a vision of Blair Sandburg -- younger than we know him now, hair loose and curly around his shoulders, dressed in tight-fitting jeans and a loose, gauzy white shirt with billowing sleeves and a deep V-neck that shows off his chest hair. He's in a -- night club(?). (I know so little about dating/dancing, what style, what venue -- I'll have to ask someone what's right.) Anyway, he's having a high old time, enjoying the music and atmosphere and movement, dancing with anyone who asks -- man or woman, he doesn't care, he just wants to dance.

(This is all I saw in my mental flash this morning. As the day went on, this developed...)

Over in the corner is a tall, quiet soldier-type (or maybe not so quiet; he hasn't been punched quite so hard by life yet. I'll have to think about that) who's (we find out later) enjoying a last social evening before shipping out on a top-secret mission. He is amused / entranced by the sheer joi de vivre exhibited by the young man on the dance floor. Later, one of Blair's male dance partners gets ideas, tries to grope him and kiss him. Blair indignantly declares that he doesn't swing that way; he thought they were just having a social good time. The other guy presses the issue. The soldier- type hates to see smaller people picked on; he intervenes...

That's as far as it goes so far. Stay tuned; someday it'll be a new fic. I hope.

But it still blows my mind -- from ABBA's "Dancing *Queen* to a dancing *Blair* (and I know damn well he's a man -- VERY man!) to a fic? How did this happen? It's just freaky, almost as if I'm possessed.

That bunny is getting extremely impatient; it's stamping its foot and biting my ankles, and making a real pest of itself. The story desperately wants to be written... and I DON'T HAVE THE TIME!!! Maybe - maybe - the week after New Year's; I don't go back to school until Jan. 8th, so maybe I can take three days and just sit and write...

Until then, why can't it leave me in peace? This is so frustrating! ::StarWatcher whimpers fretfully in the corner::
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I got a story idea for Sentinel Secrets! And 950 words written today. :::Starwatcher dancing in the street::: It's such a relief; I haven't had even a faint niggling of an idea since Polly announced the challenge. I was sincerely beginning to wonder if my flow of TS ideas had dried up. (This is an on-going fear; I'm so astounded to be able to write a story, and I don't know where they come from, that I expect it all to disappear some day.)

It's my usual style - some banter, some light sap, nothing much happening; I expect that everyone will shout "StarWatcher!" halfway down page one, but hey... I got a story! :::twirls in giddy excitement:::

Aaannnnnd... I got the kitchen almost uncluttered enough and clean enough to juice some prickly pears tomorrow. It's been so long since I cooked anything other than a TV dinner that I've really let it go to hell. Stuff piled on the counter and table, boxes and bags on the floor... I absolutely refuse to cook for anybody other than me in such an environment. I even carried my tools and ingredients to my friend's house when I made my last batches of jelly. (She keeps a spotless kitchen, and apologizes because it's not cleaner.)

So, finish the decluttering tomorrow, toss the cats outside and clean the surfaces thoroughly, and I'm good to go. Extracting the juice is a more drawn-out and messier process than the actual jelly-making, so I didn't want to take over my friend's kitchen. Besides, it's a good excuse to get things really clean. (God forbid I should clean just because - you know - it needs it or anything! *g*)

Plan for this evening (late though it already is) - eat a quick supper of frozen mini egg rolls (already in the oven), shower, and see if I can get more of my story written. Gotta check with Paula to see what the word limit is; I may have trouble keeping it to size.

There's the oven timer; gotta go.
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I'm a lurking member of

fanficrants. Generally speaking, they rant about badfic in fandoms that I have no knowledge of (eg Anime). No matter. In seeing what they complain about, I can note what to beware of in my own writing.

This morning, one member posted a link to an essay by Mark Twain on the 'literary offenses of James Fenimore Cooper', in which he points out things that weren't done that *should* be done to tell a good tale. http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html
Eg. "a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air." *g* It looks very much like some of the complaints against certain fanfic that we've seen. Consider, "They (the rules) require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been ignored from the beginning of the "Deerslayer" tale to the end of it."

Another member countered with a link to an essay from George Elliot, written in 1856, on the preponderance of "silly females" in the fiction of the day. IE - ranting against Mary Sues! *g* George Elliot complains of these heroines that "she infallibly gets into high society, she has the triumph of refusing many matches and securing the best, and she wears some family jewels or other as a sort of crown of righteousness at the end. Rakish men either bite their lips in impotent confusion at her repartees, or are touched to penitence by her reproofs, which, on appropriate occasions, rise to a lofty strain of rhetoric;" (Emphasis is mine.) I have a big amused grin on my face -- it's just so much of what anti-Mary Sue rants complain about.
http://library.marist.edu/faculty-web-pages/morreale/sillynovelists.htm

I know it's originally a French saying (Hi, Aline! Hi, Mouse!), but I only know the English version -- "The more things change, the more they remain the same." I hope you enjoy this look at literary critique of the past that too often applies -- most unfortunately -- to the present.

So, I put these links in my LJ to share, and save to memories. If anyone wants to read the original thread and comments, it's here -- http://www.livejournal.com/community/fanficrants/286527.html

amused
High Chaparral (think Henry Darrow looks like Paul Darrow?)

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One of our TS writers recently removed a story from her site. (I won't say who, in case it's not for general knowledge, yet.) When I asked why, she said she's expanded it into a novel (without our guys), and hopes to publish it. This is a good thing.

But as I wrote to her, I realized that what I had to say about her fic, I pretty much feel for ALL fic in general. So, to all the fic-writers who strive to give their ideas life, and then share the stories with the rest of us (usually for far too little feedback), this is for you.

I grew up with a gut-level appreciation of the written word. A new book was a treasure, the smell of ink and paper a heady perfume. I was convinced that the people who created those treasures must be god-like beings, inspired from on high, far above mere mortals like me. I still have a niggling suspicion that writers are a different -- better -- breed.

Now, I love fanfic. I've become a fic-addict. I feel a little like Gollum, clutching my saved fic to my chest and daring anyone to take it from me. "My precious-es. Can't have my precious-es. Must guard my precious-es."

::wiping the drool from my chin, and straightening back to normal human stance:: Mmm... sorry. But you can't imagine the distress I feel at the idea of fanfic disappearing from the 'Net. I used to collect books. Now I collect fic, carefully saved in a separate folder for each author. I format and print out my favorites and put them in binders. (There's something almost elemental about handling the actual paper, and I can dip and skim more easily than on the monitor.) I still read the occasional book, but fanfic frequently is so much more in depth emotionally, so much more personal than many books. I might change fandoms someday (unlikely), but I could never go cold turkey.

Frankly, despite the fact that I've written a few (very short) stories and posted them, I'm still in awe of the remarkable talent that comes from so many peoples' pens (or word processors). I still find it amazing that someone could shape a story that makes me laugh, or cry, or just give a final, gentle sigh of contented satisfaction.

For those who write stories that aren't necessarily my cup of tea -- hey, you wrote, you created a venue to showcase your vision. Your offerings help establish a wide-ranging pool of talent and craftsmanship that undoubtedly help inspire and encourage others to write and post. Thank you; it is much appreciated.

And for those who are still struggling to master the intricacies of punctuation, tenses, and POV -- those things can be learned (and beta'd); that's of secondary importance. The point is, you have ideas, and a love of the characters that shines through. I'll read past the rough spots to share your vision. (But don't stop trying to improve those technical parts. *g*)

So, for each and every one you who has written and continues to write -- THANK YOU! I hope that you'll be writing and posting for a long, long time.
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contemplative
sort of watching Joan of Arcadia

Still testing this thing out. To post, I have to go to my page, scroll to the bottom to click on 'Site Map', find and click on 'Update Journal'. Isn't there an easier way?

But while I'm here (again) --

Rant # 3

I love my Sentinel mailing lists, but sometimes I wonder if some of the members ever matured beyond 9 years old. A member on another list made a commentary about Arianna's new story, "Bitterwood Creek". She used a Q & A format that I thought was pretty nifty -- gave her likes and dislikes of the story, what she felt were good and bad points, in a highly readable and direct manner. I thought, Oh, boy, we'll get a real good discussion going!

So what happened? The first person to answer her posted a snipply little comment about the frivolousness of the Q & A format, and said she couldn't be bothered to read such drivel.

Well, ex-c-u-s-e ME! Since when has the format been more important than the content? (Assuming that it's not so garbled and mangled as to be actually painful to read.)

Several people posted that they enjoyed it, and the snippy one appologized. Still, that effectively derailed the discussion of that fic, although another fairly entertaining one blossomed for a while -- what's the reason to post both slash and gen versions of the same story, and should authors do it?

As I said, fairly entertaining, and I contributed, but... where does anyone get off demanding to know WHY an author chooses to post two versions of the same story? Shouldn't we simply be grateful that she posted a story? If we want to discuss and critique, there are lots of possibilities -- storyline, plot development, spelling, vocabulary, punctuation, grammar, is this or is this not a Jim and/or Blair we can believe in... But for heaven's sake, don't ask WHY she wrote and posted! What's next -- the fanfic police who disallow story-posting unless your motives are suitably "pure"? Sheesh!

Okay, it's official -- I'm a grumpy old lady.

And if anyone wants them, the links to Arianna's story follow. It's a VERY well-done (IMHO) western AU, set about a year after the Civil War. Very long -- 225 pages for the gen version, 250 for the slash.

Gen stories are at --
http://www.wolfpanther.com/

Slash stories are at --
http://www.geocities.com/annodomini2003tm/arian/arian.htm

Enough. Shower, fix tomorrow's lunch, bed.

Goodnight.

tired
If I got off my duff -- maybe John Denver. Too tired.

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