Exclusive Insanity

A very good article to read for anyone who might ever consider a vanity press in future to publish your writing (or if you know someone who might consider this option):
https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/the-author-exploitation-business/

Don't pay someone a pile of money ($5000!) to publish your work. You probably won't get enough of it back to make it worthwhile. It sounds like most people would probably have a better readership on the Internet for free. Sure, the readers don't pay you to read your work, but at least you don't have to pay someone to get your writing out there. FictionPress and Archive of Our Own can still get you some readers if you're worried about rejection. It's a better place to start than a vanity press, for sure.

So, the first OVA for Sora no Kiseki (Trails in the Sky) was released two days ago. I'm really hoping someone picks it up and subs it, because I love the game so much. I'd also buy the OVA in a heartbeat if it were released officially, without even having seen it first. The characters of the game were so fun, and the story was really engaging. I definitely want to support more anime being made of them.

... Although I'd really prefer a FULL SERIES, y'know, so that the entire story can be animated as opposed to just a part of it. I can totally see this OVA ending up like the Tales of Phantasia OVA, which is too bad.

I am also still anxiously waiting for the game's sequel to be released, although articles like this one make me nervous about its prospects (seriously, why isn't everyone buying this game? It's awesome!). One thing I'm worried about is that I'll ruin the game when watching the anime OVA, since it's based on SC (Second Chapter), which I obviously haven't played yet. But I don't care, because I want to see more of this world and these characters so much that I will immediately watch/play any new material I can get of them.

In completely unrelated news, I've gotten to the halfway point with the next chapter of Game Over, which of course means it's stalled and I have zero motivation to work on it any more. This seems to be the pattern with new chapters. However, I have formed a tentative plan for the next chapter and a half, and then I am thinking it will probably be two more chapters after that before the story ends.

When I started this beast, I originally was thinking of sequels and one-shot funny stories and possibly even a new character and everything. In the course of my struggles with the story, I have decided that there is no way in hell that is ever happening. Once it's over and I feel like I have done it enough justice, THAT IS THE END.

... Of course, knowing me and decision-making, that could totally change.

The Avatar Big Bang fanfic is FINISHED! Sort of. Still have to go through it a couple more times before I feel like letting anyone else look at it. Even then, I'm not sure. I'm too used to reading it; I can't tell where it has problems any more.

But it's done! Finished! Even if it's crap, it's still going to qualify for the June 1 deadline since I'll have at least a rough draft to submit.

I'm not looking at it again until at least tomorrow night. Until then, I'm revelling in the wonderful feeling of OMGDONE.

Or I might work on one of my other fics. I'm masochistic like that.

Snagged from korekara

Writer's Meme: it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top five favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same. And by five, we apparently mean three.

... And by five people, it means 'tag no one and whoever wants to can do it'.

1. Piece of a Legend (Original - slash) - My masterpiece. I really love the story I decided on. This is probably my favorite out of everything I've written. I realize the 'coming of age' theme has been done many many times, but I never get tired of it and I wasn't really as overt as I could've been with it. There's a lot going on in this story, anyway. It's one of my few attempts at hidden meaning, and I think it's shaped up pretty good (though not totally completed yet and not posted on my site or Fiction Press). LINK

2. Believe It or Not (Digimon - Ken/Daisuke, Takeru/Hikari, Taichi/Yamato) - This one was never all that popular, but I love it. It's an AU fic (I wrote a LOT of those) based on certain fairy lore, which I am a sucker for. I love fairies and all Irish legends about them. The plot was very loosely based on 'The Hunter's Moon' by O.R. Melling, which I was a big fan of for a long time. I think everything turned out as I wanted it, and I can re-read it with pleasure. LINK

3. Going Under (Hikaru no Go - Akira/Hikaru) - The idea was just SO there. I wanted to play with it. I sometimes think the romantic interaction was iffy in this one, but the plot was everything I wanted it to be. I managed to actually tie it together pretty good. I wrote the thing, and it still gives me shivers sometimes, too. LINK

4. Howard, again (Uninhabited Planet Survive - no pairings, spoilers up to episode 43) - This one is so short, and SO simple, but there's something about it I like. It's the first ficlet I wrote for this series, a character exploration, but I think it captured what I wanted it to capture. I snuck a couple of things in there that some people might not notice, but that's okay. I was completely satisfied with it. LINK

5. Switch (Digimon Tamers - Jenrya/Takato, Hirokazu/Kenta, Ryo/Ruki) - It was just fun. I enjoyed every second of writing this fic, and I enjoy re-reading it. I think I did fairly well with the characterizations, and it more or less came out how I wanted it to. The interactions were a lot of fun, and everyone got to be fantastically confused by being stuck in the wrong bodies. I love it. LINK


One more, because it's a collab so it doesn't really fit in the above section:

6. Ground Level (Digimon - co-authored with girl_starfish - Taichi/Yamato, Ken/Daisuke, others) - It worked out so perfectly. I still like to read this one over again (though I mostly read Louise's parts). It was just so much fun to write, and the premise was so cool! I love everything we came up with for this, and just wish we'd both had time and inspiration to do the sequels we wanted to. LINK

I just realized that I haven't made a completely pointless non-real-life-related post in this journal in quite a while.

I think I should fix that.

( Fandom, original, and other writings )

I decided to post this update on a complete whim. This means two updates in one day.

I am so freaking rebellious today. Wow, it's amazing.

While I'm still in a reasonably good humor... I'll get into my rant mode. I've had something bothering me all afternoon. I had a chat with Lady Cosmos today about predictable endings. Apparently she now feels that her stories are of little value because they are "predictable" - or, they have happy endings. Ken and Omi love each other, hook up, and are happy.

What the hell is wrong with that?

Apparently, the fic is of lesser value - or, it's cheap and/or shallow, not very good, or uncomparable to a fic that has an unhappy ending.

This is *unfair*. I hate it when someone says something like that.

That's saying, if I wrote a book one day, and it was perhaps a romance, if it had a happy ending, it wouldn't be as deep and meaningful and valuable as a book with an unhappy ending? Because the ending may be predictable, the book is less enjoyable?

This wasn't her intent, and I realize she's feeling insecure about her own work, but when she voiced the concern to me, it made me feel like my own writing was being stabbed at. I *always* write happy endings, and I make that generally known. Does that make me less of an author than someone who writes stories that *don't* always have happy endings? I find this unfair. What I choose to write shouldn't dictate what kind of author I am, or how valuable my work is.

Suppose an author wrote a story that was complete fluff, and it was obvious from the beginning that the fic would have a happy ending. If the author was a very good writer, and the fic was well-composed, does it cheapen the piece to have it end happily? Would the fic have been better if the author had started with fluff and in the end, someone died in a freak accident? This could come off sounding ridiculous, couldn't it? "Ken and Omi shared a laugh and a quick kiss, and suddenly an out-of-control car came out of nowhere and hit Omi straight on, killing him instantly."

Well, it isn't predictable, that's for sure, but I don't see how this makes the story *better*.

In all honesty, isn't it the same with an overly dark and angsty fic? It's obvious it's not going to end happily. I'm going to borrow Kinslayer's 'The Mistakes We Make' for an example. I read that fic from start to finish, and I knew before I'd made it through part one that there was no way in hell that the fic would have a 'happy' ending. It didn't fit. So, the same could be said for something like that. I mean, if you're setting us up for an *unhappy* ending, then *that* becomes predictable. "Ken was being cruelly tortured, sunk into a pit of despair and broken in ways no one could fix. Then suddenly Omi came in with some flowers for him, and everything was okay."

That's not predictable either. But it doesn't fit, right?

Is there a difference between the two examples? They both seem kind of silly. Is the one with the implausible happy ending more or less ridiculous than the one with the implausible unhappy ending?

And they're both unpredictable. So does *that* make them more or less plausible?

Why is it that people think it's more predictable, or that it 'cheapens' the fic to make it end happily? Personally, I prefer the happy ending. If the characters go through suffering and sorrow, and come out on top of it all, I think it's like hope. People say to that, 'well, it doesn't always happen that way in real life.' Hello? Most of us live in the real world, too. We *know* that. We're not idiots. Does that mean we want to read or write about it? Not necessarily.

So why is an unhappy ending considered to be of more worth than a happy ending? It's supposed to be more 'real'. Are you saying that happy endings *never* happen in real life? That's the same as saying that unhappy endings never happen in real life - which most people already know is untrue. I don't understand *why* people think there's such a difference.

I think my argument may have been inspired by our philosophy discussion today, which was on discrimination. We were talking about reverse discrimination, and I think it's sort of similar. People are so anxious to avoid discrimination that they bend backwards and discriminate the other way, putting the rights of minority groups ahead of others.

Same for stories: we shouldn't say that unhappy endings are of lesser value, but it's not right to say that they're of greater value, either. A happy ending can be done just as beautifully or as meaningfully. The value of the fic is measured in the quality of the writing, isn't it?

I'm not putting a lot of time and effort into my happily ending fics to have someone tell me that they're cheap and predictable. I've put work and thought into this, and you're tearing it apart because you know that in the end, Ken and Omi will end up together?

My response: get a life. I mean that.

Whether or *not* they're predictable, my fics are just as valuable as the next person's.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the rant. I *love* to write. It's one thing I feel I'm really good at. Having someone attack my work, whether or not they mean to, makes me want to rebel in some fashion. This is my chosen fashion.

I'd like to hear the opinions of any other writers... What do you people think? Is an unhappy ending worth more than a happy ending? If so... tell me WHY! Because I really want to know where this reasoning comes from.