goseaward

So I've been watching Mark Reads Fifty Shades of Grey videos (which...I feel kind of bad about that, because he obviously doesn't like the books, but his freakouts at various lines and events are both entertaining and informative?)

Anyway, so the book has a bunch of awful parts, but--unrelated to those bits--there was an interesting paragraph that echoed something from one of my favorite fanfics of all time, rageprufrock's The Least of All Possible Mistakes. I found it very interesting, from a writing perspective, how the two passages portray not only their very different protagonists and prose styles, but also very specific kinds of...romantic ideals, I guess? Anyway, should anyone care to read them, I've excerpted the passages below. They both concern a situation where the romantic hero provides clothing to the romantic heroine, and ends up buying an entire outfit (shoes and undergarments included); in fact, weirdly enough, both of the women receive jeans and blue shirts, and both passages discuss the fact that it's the romantic hero's assistant who purchased the undergarments.

( Passage from Fifty Shades )

( Passage from The Least of All Possible Mistakes )

Jo Walton, in an update about a novel she's working on, wrote:

But I am grateful for being able to do this. I love writing. Sonme writers don't, they like having written, but they don't actually enjoy the process of composing. I do. I like it of all things. I'd say my two favourite things to do are writing and having good conversations.

I'm...not sure I feel that way, but I know this is a sentiment I haven't heard much, so I like the contrast! Any thoughts from the peanut gallery on which you prefer?

You know, now that I think about it more, I think I enjoy writing more than having written. Mostly because I usually have a self-confidence crash of 'OH MY GOD THIS IS TERRIBLE' that lasts for a couple of years after I finish something...:D

In other things that have amused me, David Paich of Toto (or one of his representatives) apparently described himself as "copywright holder" in a copyright infringement claim to YouTube, at least judging by the message that popped up on a pulled video of an a capella group doing "Africa." *snicker*

I'm stuck in New Town for another two days because I was supposed to fly through Chicago to Iowa tonight. So obviously it's time for a GIANT WINTER STORM. *hands*

(You guys, I have been involved in this several-days-long email conversation at work about a thing in our data that is WEIRD and the only appropriate reaction to the thing is *hands* but if I do that nobody will know what I mean! It has been trying to burst out of me for like 72 hours and I finally get to use it! Yay!)

(Also, weather.com has named it Draco. I am deeply amused.)

"Stuck" is perhaps unkind, but it's just...I'm supposed to be in my childhood home, hanging out with my parents, and instead I'll be going in to my totally deserted academic workplace and working tomorrow. I had thrown out all my perishable food! I had cleaned the apartment top to bottom so it would be nice when I came back! I'd packed up my cross-stitching in several different places in my luggage! And now I'm...here. It's weird. Not, like, terrible or anything, and obviously I'm safe and sound etc, but the cognitive dissonance is more extreme than I was expecting.

ANYWAY, to relieve my boredom, an end-of-year writerly meme gacked from...somebody like a week ago, don't remember who, sorry! :/

( yearly writing meme )

So like a month ago I asked for some writing and meta links from you guys. (Man, for sentences like that I really wish I was Southern.) Anyway, I finally compiled the giant list; it's over on the community idolmeta, specifically here, if anyone's interested. It's something like 400 links, so, y'know, big :D and it's missing a lot of stuff that applies solely to speculative fiction, as this is for a mimetic fandom (and how weird is that).