Dorothy Marley's Journal

So. I have seen all the Avengers Universe Movies.

I've also started writing fanfic again.

These two events are not unrelated.

I'm going about the fanfic thing in a...slightly different way, though. I have had such a huge problem the last several years with messing around and fiddling and tweaking stories that I end up never finishing them, or if I finish them I never post them. I have a finished Stargate: Atlantis story that I've never posted anywhere but here, and two finished Lord of the Rings stories I've never posted anywhere because I'm just endlessly fussing with them.

So, I'm trying something new. First, I decided to try my hand at posting anon on the kink memes (okay, so I'm telling everyone *here* that I'm posting anon, which is probably defeating the purpose, but never mind), so I feel a little freer for the story to not have to be absolutely totally 110% perfectly perfect with every word delicately crafted into place. (It only has to be 105% perfect.)

Second, I found a prompt that was really detailed. Like, really, really, really detailed, as in pretty much the entire story outlined down to how it ends. The OP has firm ideas on the shape of things, which is great because it means I don't have to make up everything myself (seriously, the OP is getting co-writing credit when I clean it up and re-post it). But, the OP also isn't dictatorial about the little details. So long as I hit the main plot points (which I wouldn't have picked the prompt if that was a deal-breaker), they're happy.

( Cut because I discuss (non-graphically) writing non-con )

Fourth, I'm posting it as a WIP. Yes, I know, I KNOW!!! Vows are made to be broken, etc. But I feel like I need to try it and see if it works, if it kick-starts that ten-year-dormant fanfic-writing part of me and gets me over the fallback of "Well, I can always post it ten years later..."

So, yeah, I'm excited about writing again. Who knew? :)

I saw this on metafandom, and think it's important to share:

Nerdy PSA by hope

It's a brief guide to some important information about using the right HTML to make your posts and/or pages more accessible to people who might, for instance, be using text-reading programs. I was really embarrassed to not know that the em and strong tags have an important function for text readers, that they actually affect the inflection of the reading, unlike bold and italics tags. I also wasn't using the title tag for my links--at least up until now--and I wasn't always careful about making the linked text informative. This is what happens when you learn just enough HTML to be dangerous around 1997-8 and never upgrade.

A lot of the information in hope's post is from the HTML Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. I feel that this will be an invaluable resource to help me join the 21st century. :)

So, being the committed slasher that I am, one of the first things I did when beginning my Pirates of the Caribbean research was look for books about pirate sexuality. I found and read two that addressed the subject in detail, and thought I'd give some summary/review for the benefit of those attempting to discuss 17th Century pirates and their sexuality.

(Note: I should probably mention that there was no equivalent term for "homosexual" or "gay" in the 17th Century. Not only did the words not exist in their current meaning, there was in fact no actual formal concept of same-sex sexual preference. Same-sex sexual relationships were instead defined in the courtroom by the legal definitions of sodomy, which is why that term is used so frequently in my summaries.)

( Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by B. R. Burg )

The Seven Deadly Fanons of Characterization: A Spotter's Guide

I. Preface

Although this Guide was prepared by observing these interesting and prolific creatures in the Domain of Slash, they are to be found throughout Fandom, and inhabit almost all genres. Although some of them are more difficult to find in certain fandoms and genres, on the whole they are a hardy and fecund species, and are also prone to migrate and colonize new fandoms with astonishing swiftness.

The following Guide is intended to help identify these curious beasts, since they will almost always take the names of actual Canon characters and--sometimes, but not always--adopt their physical appearance as well. This checklist will hopefully enable the cautious Explorer to distinguish those characteristics most often demonstrated by a typical Fanon, and thus avoid being deceived into thinking that they are an actual Canon.

( The Seven Deadly Fanons )

Going to see Pirates of the Caribbean for the fourth time was definitely a mistake. The fact that I took along a mini notebook and scribbled notes in the dark was merely the symbolic white flag of my surrender to a new #!@$$%! fandom.

( So, how long to December 2? )

So, there it is. Shiny new fandom. Curse it.

Yes, I finally got off my butt and told the server owner about the issues with my website, and it took him approximately .03 seconds to fix it. Now all I have to do is update it for the first time since, oh, June 27. Maybe plunging myopically into updates will keep my stomach from knotting up every time I look at the television.

Edited to note that last update was June 27, 2002. Need to be a geek more.

In response to the responses to destina's already-famous post, zvi_likes_tv said in this post:

Underlying my viewpoint is a distrust in the ability of authors to argue from the text they actually published as opposed to the story in their head. [...] Too often, I think authors take the position that their intentions, motivations, and interpretations are the important part of a story, regardless of whether or not those are communicated to the audience.

( This got me thinking )