10369 réponses à ce sujet

[Maria13]

Gilgamesh1138 wrote...

GAHHHHH!!!! I hate the formatting issues here!  *Throws over a table Missa style*

Okay venting over.  And chapter 91 is up, finally! UGH!

My method now is to download doc first to FF.net copy the text from there after formatting but before posting (then you have it in Open Office rather than Word) and then as Raonar says press BBC button paste in reply box press BBC again and voila, mostly formatted.  All you have to do then is add in the Italics and bolds etc

[Maria13]

Addai67 wrote...

LupusYondergirl wrote...

I had it happen twice when I was still writing in the Awakenings timeline. One sent me an email saying she couldn't read anymore until she finished the game since I'd just spoiled part of it for her, I think that was halfway through. Another sent me a very angry email for "ruining" the ending since they hadn't gotten that far yet.

I couldn't even respond, I was too confused.

Someone was ranting at me on YouTube for posting an endgame video.  They choose to click on it and then are mad... whatever.  People do stupid things, especially on the internetz.

I assume most of the people reading DA fanfiction are players and so I try not to belabor game events or lore.  I'll give a brief explanation, especially for obscure stuff, but I assume I'm writing for players.  If someone else wants to look in, they can read the wiki to catch up I guess.

This is what I assume, isn't that the point of FF, you're writing for an existing fandom so you assume prior knowledge... Although I do have the occasional critique from my SO who has not played DA:O.

[Dean_the_Young]

Sarah1281 wrote...

LupusYondergirl wrote...

So I was sitting in class today and, during the lecture, realized
something interesting.  The topic was on the difference between the
'hero' in American literature versus the 'hero' in European
literature.  The main differences we were discussing was how the
American protagonist tends to be either quite literally young, or if not, then they're someone who refuses to grow up, and often an outsider who rails against tradition, authority, or society's institutions.  Conversely, the European classics are often coming of age stories where the hero matures and becomes a part of society by the end.
I just thought that was funny since so much of the first would very easily fit my fic.  I'd never intended it that way (and actually have read far more British literature than American), but there it is.
Just found it strange how much I must have internalized these cultural myths and ideals for them to show up even in fanfic. Without my realizing it or planning it I followed most every convention found in American lit. Especially since my academic concentration is Elizabethan Brit lit.

Anyways. I found it interesting and figured I'd share.

Oh, I can definitely see that. I tend to be more fond of the former but, given that I'm American, I suppose that's not surprising. Just giving in and doing/being what everyone else expects of you always seems so depressing...

Literature is so varried I wouldn't stand by such a generalization. For every Hamlet, Shakespear wrote a Macbeth. And we can just as easily point to any number of American stories in which the character is fleshed out but not dynamic: the Dirty Harry, the grizzled special forces/CIA conspiracy buster, the elite specialist (doctor, soldier, engineer) who solves some problem.

In a number of respects, American literature about youth rebelling against authority is their coming of age process in which they also come to terms with their role in the world. Luke Skywalker didn't just rebel against the Empire, he accepted his role as a Jedi Knight. Neo didn't only topple the matrix, he stepped into the role of savior and leader for the rebels.

[Addai]

LupusYondergirl wrote...
Just found it strange how much I must have internalized these cultural myths and ideals for them to show up even in fanfic. Without my realizing it or planning it I followed most every convention found in American lit. Especially since my academic concentration is Elizabethan Brit lit.

Anyways. I found it interesting and figured I'd share.

Probably we get them from media as much as or more than from literature.  Can't you always tell when you're watching a European film vs. an American?  They move more slowly, have long pauses, draw more from atmosphere and character than plot etc.

And you make me nostalgic.  I used to be a lit major, in the mists of time- German medieval lit.  I hope you don't end up a paper jockey like me. 

[LupusYondergirl]

Dean_the_Young wrote...
Literature is so varried I wouldn't stand by such a generalization. For every Hamlet, Shakespear wrote a Macbeth. And we can just as easily point to any number of American stories in which the character is fleshed out but not dynamic: the Dirty Harry, the grizzled special forces/CIA conspiracy buster, the elite specialist (doctor, soldier, engineer) who solves some problem.

In a number of respects, American literature about youth rebelling against authority is their coming of age process in which they also come to terms with their role in the world. Luke Skywalker didn't just rebel against the Empire, he accepted his role as a Jedi Knight. Neo didn't only topple the matrix, he stepped into the role of savior and leader for the rebels.

In general this convention does hold true throughout the cannon of classic American literature, though, which is what I was talking about.  I don't really think pop culture films intended for a worldwide audience can really be compared fairly- most are done by international crews with people from all over the world working on every aspect.  (And FWIW Star Wars is basically a spaghetti western in space, and I say this as someone with a Star Wars tattoo.  Not knocking it or anything, but it's basically a retelling of a movie Sergio Leone made more than once...)

De Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer has several essays on this that still hold true today (and read quite easily despite their age) if you're interested. It's public domain.

As for Macbeth... well, look at it like this- the hero is the one who accepts his place, when the protagonist is a villian they usually get punished for refusing to do just that.
Macbeth didn't accept his role in society. His wife died, his rule crumbled, and he lost his head. Lady Macbeth refused to accept both her gender and social standing, and she got it even worse than her husband.  Marlowe's Faustus tried to cheat his way beyond being an academic and he was dragged bodily into hell as a result. Volpone, Face and Subtle from the Alchemist, Barabas in the Jew of Malta, Lear, Iago, Richard III... They all get punished, usually quite severely, because they do not accept their place. In general the sixteenth and early seventeenth century give us some of the most dramatic examples of this convention.
(Although I hesitate to lump Shakespeare into any category since I honestly believe his work transcends both his era as well as most literary tradition and convention. Which is why he's the subject of my undergrad honors thesis and will be the concentration of my PhD next year. I could ramble for days on Shakespeare, especially Macbeth.  Seriously, don't get me started, I've probably written about eighty pages on Macbeth in the last two years alone.  )

Modifié par LupusYondergirl, 07 septembre 2010 - 09:47 .

[LupusYondergirl]

Addai67 wrote...

LupusYondergirl wrote...
Just found it strange how much I must have internalized these cultural myths and ideals for them to show up even in fanfic. Without my realizing it or planning it I followed most every convention found in American lit. Especially since my academic concentration is Elizabethan Brit lit.

Anyways. I found it interesting and figured I'd share.

Probably we get them from media as much as or more than from literature.  Can't you always tell when you're watching a European film vs. an American?  They move more slowly, have long pauses, draw more from atmosphere and character than plot etc.

And you make me nostalgic.  I used to be a lit major, in the mists of time- German medieval lit.  I hope you don't end up a paper jockey like me. 

I was a desk jockey for years.  Went back to school to finish my BA after I was laid off and I decided I loved acedemia too much to ever give it up.  I'm going straight through until my PhD is done.  Lucky for me the trend among American grad students in lit these days is very much against the Dead White Men, as they're so often called.  Since that's what I really love I'll hopefully have a slightly easier time finding a position at a college or university.

[Miri1984]

LupusYondergirl wrote...

Addai67 wrote...

LupusYondergirl wrote...
Just found it strange how much I must have internalized these cultural myths and ideals for them to show up even in fanfic. Without my realizing it or planning it I followed most every convention found in American lit. Especially since my academic concentration is Elizabethan Brit lit.

Anyways. I found it interesting and figured I'd share.

Probably we get them from media as much as or more than from literature.  Can't you always tell when you're watching a European film vs. an American?  They move more slowly, have long pauses, draw more from atmosphere and character than plot etc.

And you make me nostalgic.  I used to be a lit major, in the mists of time- German medieval lit.  I hope you don't end up a paper jockey like me. 

I was a desk jockey for years.  Went back to school to finish my BA after I was laid off and I decided I loved acedemia too much to ever give it up.  I'm going straight through until my PhD is done.  Lucky for me the trend among American grad students in lit these days is very much against the Dead White Men, as they're so often called.  Since that's what I really love I'll hopefully have a slightly easier time finding a position at a college or university.

I'm curious about how academia works in the US... is it expensive? Are you going to be struggling and poor for the rest of your life? Or do you get grants and scholarships and stuff? I ask completely out of excessive nosiness by the way .

[Sarah1281]

I'm curious about how academia works in the US... is it expensive? Are you going to be struggling and poor for the rest of your life? Or do you get grants and scholarships and stuff? I ask completely out of excessive nosiness by the way .

I know that college in general is ridiculously expensive so if you don't get scholarships then you're going to be paying off student loans for the rest of your life. Even just state schools will get you 80K-100K in debt by the time you're done.

[SurelyForth]

School can be quite expensive and most states don't have free school programs, or they're restricted to low income families/students. Most students pay for their undergraduate education with a combination of scholarship monies and student loans. Graduate students can get assistantships, either as associate instructors, coordinators, lab techs, etc. At my school (a state school), an assistantship pays tuition and a monthly stipend (which sounds sweet, but it's 20/week minimum and many departments work their grad students to death). There are also fellowships and grants available, but those are quite competitive, especially as state funds allotted for higher education is decreasing.

[Sandtigress]

SurelyForth wrote...

School can be quite expensive and most states don't have free school programs, or they're restricted to low income families/students. Most students pay for their undergraduate education with a combination of scholarship monies and student loans. Graduate students can get assistantships, either as associate instructors, coordinators, lab techs, etc. At my school (a state school), an assistantship pays tuition and a monthly stipend (which sounds sweet, but it's 20/week minimum and many departments work their grad students to death). There are also fellowships and grants available, but those are quite competitive, especially as state funds allotted for higher education is decreasing.

Heh yeah...I'm paid for 20 hours a week, but I work more like 50-70 and my record is over a hundred hours, yeah, in a week.  And people wonder why I don't update my story very often...  

[LupusYondergirl]

1. yes. My undergrad sticker price is about 30,000 USD a year at a smallish Jesuit college. That's just tuition, not housing or anything like that, and for a private school that's considered affordable. I believe my sister paid something like $10,000 a year at a public school (New York)

2. Probably, but I've already done the well-paid but miserable thing, I'll take happy and poor over that. I make less than half of what I did at my full time IT job now and I'm about a thousand times happier.

3. If you're lucky. Most of my education now is covered by scholarships. I have loans, but remarkably little. I'm very fortunate. (of course, I also work my ass off and haven't let my GPA drop below 3.9, so it's not like they just give it to me because I'm nice. )

[Dean_the_Young]

American colleges can be expensive (depending on prestiege, location, size), but there are a wide number of tuition assistance measures you can do to help the cost. And a good college degree in a practical field quickly pays for itself, and is one of the most decisive achievements one can get to benefit their later life.

[LupusYondergirl]

Dean_the_Young wrote...

And a good college degree in a practical field quickly pays for itself, and is one of the most decisive achievements one can get to benefit their later life.

Too true.  Shoot, I'll go one further.  ANY degree, in ANY field, will help you later in life.  I've seen many jobs that don't even specify what your BA has to be in, only that applicants need to have one.  A friend of mine works at a bank and needed at least a BA to apply for his current position.  I have no idea how his degree in romantic literature relates to the world of finance, but apparently that was enough for them.
My old company would have automatically given me a substantial raise if I'd finished my BA while I was still working there, even though it was a completely unrelated subject.

[Addai]

LupusYondergirl wrote...

I was a desk jockey for years.  Went back to school to finish my BA after I was laid off and I decided I loved acedemia too much to ever give it up.  I'm going straight through until my PhD is done.  Lucky for me the trend among American grad students in lit these days is very much against the Dead White Men, as they're so often called.  Since that's what I really love I'll hopefully have a slightly easier time finding a position at a college or university.

Ah, well good on you.  Someday I might do the same.  I can't really complain, I had opportunities to go into academia and turned them down in order to see the world.  Which I did, sort of (a good chunk of it anyway), and now I'm in a more settled life.  I still warn people about liberal arts degrees, but in truth I loved every wasteful, expensive minute.

And now we write fanfiction.  What's wrong with us.  LOL

[mousestalker]

I had what most consider to be the world's most useless liberal arts degree. I use my major every day. There's a lot I regret about my choices. My college and my major aren't among them. Going to the college I did was one of my best decisions. Deciding to go to law school was one of my worst.

[Sandtigress]

Addai67 wrote...

LupusYondergirl wrote...

I was a desk jockey for years.  Went back to school to finish my BA after I was laid off and I decided I loved acedemia too much to ever give it up.  I'm going straight through until my PhD is done.  Lucky for me the trend among American grad students in lit these days is very much against the Dead White Men, as they're so often called.  Since that's what I really love I'll hopefully have a slightly easier time finding a position at a college or university.

Ah, well good on you.  Someday I might do the same.  I can't really complain, I had opportunities to go into academia and turned them down in order to see the world.  Which I did, sort of (a good chunk of it anyway), and now I'm in a more settled life.  I still warn people about liberal arts degrees, but in truth I loved every wasteful, expensive minute.

And now we write fanfiction.  What's wrong with us.  LOL

lol I have a MS in Genetics...talk about completely wasted!    Still hoping to get one more degree and then this current one might prove to be useful, but we'll see!

[Sandtigress]

Actually, that makes me curious. Does everyone other than me have a degree in liberal arts of some sort? I am a bit unusual though...most dedicated life science people don't also dab in tech-type science stuff like video games too...

[SurelyForth]

Speaking of fanfiction, a question for those of you who write almost every day: how long can you go without writing before you feel a bit panicky and like you might never be able to write anything again? In the almost six months I have been writing my main fic, I think the longest break I've taken is 24 hours. Right now I'm fast approaching 48 hours, I don't have a single word down for the next chapter and it's making me a little nervous.

And by "a little nervous" I mean there is some serious flailing going down at Casa Forth tonight. I can't even work on glorious smut; I am just completely out of words and the ones I do manage to eke out get shoved together with all the skill of a semi-literate 12 year-old.

I wouldn't be worried, I don't think, if I wasn't hitting walls every couple of days. For the past month I've been clambering over them, or tunneling under, or just smashing through. Right now there's no wall, just an utter lack of ability that I feel like is a direct result of my stubborn drive to push myself. 

Modifié par SurelyForth, 08 septembre 2010 - 01:01 .

[TanithAeyrs]

Sandtigress wrote...

Actually, that makes me curious. Does everyone other than me have a degree in liberal arts of some sort? I am a bit unusual though...most dedicated life science people don't also dab in tech-type science stuff like video games too...

You're not alone.  B.S in Animal and Dairy Science and a D.V.M..   Eight years of college to work 80 hour weeks (yippie).  Acutally, it's not so bad, I recently cut down to a 3 day work week and every third week on call so I'm working 35-40 hours a week now.  I'm hoping I'll have more time to write....

[Sandtigress]

Writing for me is terribly laborious, whether for fun or work. So I guess I'm always in a sort of "can't write, oh well"/"can't write OMG I'm never going to get this done" state...I swing between fine and frustration all the time.

*shocks Surely's muse back to life*

[TanithAeyrs]

Helps Sandtigress shock Surley's muse back into line.



Seriously, I write when I have time and inspiration. Sometimes it's everyday, sometimes I go weeks before I'm ready again. It depends a lot on real life stuff and whether the muse is with me or not.

[Sandtigress]

TanithAeyrs wrote...

Sandtigress wrote...

Actually, that makes me curious. Does everyone other than me have a degree in liberal arts of some sort? I am a bit unusual though...most dedicated life science people don't also dab in tech-type science stuff like video games too...

You're not alone.  B.S in Animal and Dairy Science and a D.V.M..   Eight years of college to work 80 hour weeks (yippie).  Acutally, it's not so bad, I recently cut down to a 3 day work week and every third week on call so I'm working 35-40 hours a week now.  I'm hoping I'll have more time to write....

Ohhhhh cool!  I was headed for a DVM until the genetics bug bit me - I was pre-vet in undergrad and my BS is technically from the College of Vet Med!  Got lots of friends who are vets/vet hopefuls!  Had I done vet med, I would have gone into animal behavior, I think.  I have a minor in psychology, which I think is actually part of the reason I'm interested in writing fic.  I like writing about emotional response, interpersonal interactions, etc.

[Sarah1281]

Sandtigress wrote...

Actually, that makes me curious. Does everyone other than me have a degree in liberal arts of some sort? I am a bit unusual though...most dedicated life science people don't also dab in tech-type science stuff like video games too...

 I don't actually have any degree. And for that matter I still need to figure out what I want to major in. I just started my second year, after all. My big problem is my interests tend to be more useless liberal arts things...
 

SurelyForth wrote...

Speaking of fanfiction, a question for those of you who write almost every day: how long can you go without writing before you feel a bit panicky and like you might never be able to write anything again? In the almost six months I have been writing my main fic, I think the longest break I've taken is 24 hours. Right now I'm fast approaching 48 hours, I don't have a single word down for the next chapter and it's making me a little nervous.

I'll have been a member of ff.net for six years on the nineteenth. I've tended to write some, take forever off, write some, take forever off for a few years and then September of 2008 I decided I wanted to actually do a multi-chapter story but I was pretty horrible at updating so I decided to do it once a week which worked pretty great until I didn't really have a plot for the next section and so I took a two-and-a-half month break (until people really started complaining I never updated) and so I just wrote it kind of plotless Really, it's been a year now since I've been writing as much as I currently do. I normally don't keep track of how much I write but last November I did because I wanted to see if I could hit NNWM levels. I did.  Basically, I get the urge to write something pretty much every day and definitely don't go longer than two days or so without doing it (it practically killed me this summer when I had to stop for two weeks or so for exams) but most of that time isn't for my epic story because I do a lot of one-shots. I suffer from an excess of ideas and I know I'll never get it all down.

Since if I don't write regularly I get lazy and it's really hard for me to get back into it, having an updating schedule for chapter-stories really works for me but you really don't sound like you have that particular problem.

[TanithAeyrs]

Sandtigress wrote...

Ohhhhh cool!  I was headed for a DVM until the genetics bug bit me - I was pre-vet in undergrad and my BS is technically from the College of Vet Med!  Got lots of friends who are vets/vet hopefuls!  Had I done vet med, I would have gone into animal behavior, I think.  I have a minor in psychology, which I think is actually part of the reason I'm interested in writing fic.  I like writing about emotional response, interpersonal interactions, etc.

Genetics is cool too, my brother-in-law has his PhD in molecular genetics, I can't always understand what he's talking about but it's cool.   Vet Med is fun but rural practice is a killer on family life - that being said, I don't think I'd ever want to do anything else (except write maybe). 

@Sarah - I love how you have so much drive to write.  I get these plot bunnies in my head and can't get them out.  Sometimes I spend two weeks on the details of how a single scene will come out, but I usually have an idea for the whole plot before I start (except sometimes my characters change their minds).

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Sandtigress wrote...

Actually, that makes me curious. Does everyone other than me have a degree in liberal arts of some sort? I am a bit unusual though...most dedicated life science people don't also dab in tech-type science stuff like video games too...

Professional Writing and Editing Diploma, and I did a couple of years of an Applied Physics degree as well (deferred). I'd been writing for ages before those, but the writing course was very useful for technical stuff and grammar.

SurelyForth wrote...

Speaking of fanfiction, a question
for those of you who write almost every day: how long can you go
without writing before you feel a bit panicky and like you might never
be able to write anything again?

I've never had that happen, to be honest. I can get worried about never finishing a particular story, but never write ever again? That's like saying I'd stop playing computer games! It's just of those things I do when I feel like, and don't feel worried when I don't play/write for however long...I can do either whenever I like. Periods of writer's block of blank walls of not wanting to write (or play) happen, and then they go away in their own time.