1. The July genre at genrechallenge is Period. That's a whole lot of possibilities there.

2. I'm trying to write for all of 31_days's July themes. Most of it might be Condor Trilogy fics, and when July is over, all the fics will be reposted here in groups.

3. Writing progress

June 30 900 words. I suck at writing romantic relationships. Besides, in wuxia, most of the time people seem to fall for their better halves so effortlessly.
July 1 1,000 words, 200 of which are for fanfic. See #2.

1. There's a community in DW, Parthenon, where members can post bits of scene that are supposed to be part of their ongoing stories, but they don't know yet where those scenes belong, exactly. (I haven't checked if there's a similar comm in LJ) If I have such scenes in store (which I usually don't), I'd either adjust the story so the scenes can be included, adjust the scenes so they can be included in the story, or discard them altogether if they really can't fit into the story. This might mean I'm either boring or not terribly creative. Another option is to use prompts from writing communities to - the word that comes to my mind is 'legalize' - the existence of these scene bits. This is something I maybe should try.
Have you ever thought up scenes like that? What do you do with them?

2. readerofasaph asked if anyone would be interested in a Tennis no Oujisama bigbang.

3. Writing progress

June 27 1,000 words.
June 28 1,200 words. I need to write longer fighting sequences.
June 29 2,400 words. A lucky day. I also should do more research on the principles of qinggong.

The Polyamorous Big Bang Challenge (on LJ and on DW): write 10,000 words of fic focusing on polyamorous relationships, for which you will be rewarded with accompanying fanmixes and fanart. Me, I'm bad at writing relationships involving more than two people, and even a dreaded Third Wheel usually stays in the background.

Writing progress

June 25 500 words. I am appalled at my tendency to write couples under 25 years of age as cute.
June 26 1,000 words. 81k words in total so far, and the end is still not in sight. Damn this genre.

1. Writing progress

June 23 800 words.
June 24 Again, 800 words. I ought to stop making the characters readily imagine the worst. They're not horror novel writers.

2. ephemery asked about my thoughts about the purpose of writing/what I see writing as.

First, ganked from a post on literaryquotes:
You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page.
- Annie Proulx, Interview in The Paris Review, Issue 188

There are a lot of reasons why people write, and mine are simple and very much mundane - because I love doing it. As for purposes - one of them is to try living through fictional characters and see things from their eyes, and thus, hopefully, help broaden my own capacity for understanding. And, if possible, to entertain others while I'm doing it. To me, that's what writing is partly about: sharing worlds, the more eloquently the better. And yes, I do enjoy playing with words, which is more easily done when I'm not trying to keep up with a plot. (Don't get me wrong, though - plot is good. Very good indeed)

Writing progress

June 20 900 words.
June 21 1,400 words. Xenophobic robbers and hidden agendas and melodrama, oh my.
June 22 1,100 words. More xenophobia, and me wondering if there were fangirls during the Yuan Dynasty, and how obvious they might be.

( Notes )

For 52_flavours, theme 15 (Bitter to taste, sweet in imagining). Valentine, Franz, Noirtier, one-sided Franz/Valentine. Gankutsuou © Gonzo, et al.

( The Sun and Butterflies )

Opinions on the phase system. My conclusion is that the method still allows for quite a lot of room for changes, depending on when and how inspiration arrives and how well we can adapt the story to the changes.

whumpers_guide, a community in the line little_details, but specifically for when your characters get hurt.

Third-batch reply for the alphabet drabble meme. There are still 22 unclaimed letters left, peeps.

B - beginnings, Honey & Clover
For takishia.
( Beginnings )

Writing progress
June 9 1,100 words. Without coffee this time.
June 10 200 words.
June 11 900 words. At this point, the story could use a plot twist.
June 12 Again, 900 words.

Thoughts:
. Do plot twists, which from one POV are an attempt to keep readers (and the writer) interested, justify a fair amount of coincidences? In wuxia, coincidences are sometimes a major factor in moving the story forward. Or so I gathered.
. I'm beginning to wonder if I can only write certain types of (main?) characters. I might not have written enough original fics to know that yet, but I wonder all the same.

Second-batch reply for the alphabet drabble meme.

A - armory, Code:Breaker
For artillie.
( Armory )

1. The Phase System, using phase outlines which Lazette Gifford says helped her to "write a 101,000 word book in ten days". I think I've read this before, probably in the book she wrote for NaNo. The method does seem useful for writing events like that one, or if you're on a tight deadline. The downside is the writing might become less of an adventure and somewhat more like an assignment. Conclusion: you can't have everything (but don't ever give up trying to).

2. Last seen in shadowsinfire: Feel good exercise: Poke through your old fics and find bits and pieces you like and that still satisfy you now.
( Old means mostly pre-LJ/Not all of these are in English )


Writing progress
June 7 300 words. I had no excuse.
June 8 1,300 words, mostly thanks to latte and donuts.

Writing For the World, at sfnovelists.com. From what I've gathered, basically it says that in the fantasy genre, when writing about cultures not your own, you can only reimagine them, and it's understandable if you don't get it right every time. There's more leeway here than in, say, (the writer's own example) historical fiction.
That being said, I believe there are rules in the culture you're basing your world off of that can't just be conveniently ignored. I once read a YA novel (set in 1970's Europe, not of the fantasy genre) where there's a supposedly Japanese character called Hatsimoto. I spent the rest of the book thinking, "There's no character for 'tsi' in Japanese, is there?" Which leads me, maybe in a roundabout way, to this comment on the above blog entry.
And maybe that's another reason non-whites, Asians included, should write for a large audience, in any genre.
(Sons of Tangential: 1) Thankfully, in this era of search engines, doing research should be easier. 2) I have pages of printed material - taken from the Internet - about the Uyghurs and I still haven't had the opportunity to put them to use)
(I keep revising this entry. If there's still anything inappropriate, feel free to point it out to me)

Writing progress

June 6 1,400 words for the wuxia novel, bringing it to a total of 66k words. Sadly (?), I don't think this is a 100k-story.

1. Beta-Reading & the Art of Criticism.
The betas I've had have never seemed to hesitate to point out my mistakes, for which I'm extremely grateful.
State specific concerns about your story. I'm generally worried about everything. I mean, I always do the best I could, but one thing or two (or even five) will always slip by undetected.
Don't beta-read for authors you love. Authors I love might already have had better betas than I am, IMO.

2. This week's question at fannish5: What are five stories you wish you could write, but can't?

( Too many ideas, too little time )

Replies for the alphabet drabble meme, first batch.

F - flowers, Naruto
For helike.
( Flowers )

P - papercut, Kekkaishi
For sarasusa.
( Papercut )