miscellaneous miscellany

[dbskyler]

I've decided not to do Yuletide after all. I'm just not feeling it this year, for several reasons. First, it's looking like I might have a busy work month. I also notice that two of the four fandoms I wanted to offer have no requests -- how sad! -- and one of the fandoms I wanted to request has no other requests, and possibly no offers. (I realize you can't tell that for sure from the summary, but if no one else wants it, what are the odds that someone has offered it?) Finally, my biggest fanfic wish right now is to have something posted on my WIP by the end of the year, and if there's any chance of that happening, I need to keep myself free from other fic-writing commitments. So, no Yuletide. Instead I'll just sit back and enjoy the action from the sidelines, and look forward to reading the archive once it opens.

In other news, my S5 DVD boxset has arrived! I'm starting to make my way through the extras. Any particularly good commentaries I should listen to right away?

I also had the slightly surreal experience of seeing Matt Smith on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Doctor Who on American mainstream network television! Go Matt! And go Craig for being a huge fan and inviting him on! Now we need to get Matt onto other talk shows before he wraps up the Utah filming and leaves the country. Conan, you seem like the type of person who might be a closet Doctor Who fan, how about it?

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Aw... I am still rooting for you to finish the Turn Left fic!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

So am I! ; )

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

LOL Okay!!

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

I am entirely confuseled by the offering/requesting summary sheet. Does it only show fandoms that have been requested, so if somebody offered a fandom one wanted to request but nobody else has requested it yet, you can't tell? Or... I do not even understand. o_O

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Does it only show fandoms that have been requested, so if somebody offered a fandom one wanted to request but nobody else has requested it yet, you can't tell?

Yes, this is correct. So maybe the fandom I wanted to request has been offered, and maybe it hasn't. Last year the summary let you see requests and offers for all the fandoms, even those that had no offers or requests at all, and I liked that much better. I don't blame the coders -- they've worked very hard to get this amount of functionality onto the new setup at AO3 -- but I hope this is something they'll address for next year.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Aww.. that's a shame! Although, if it means more Turn Left, I can't really complain :) I saw some pretty cool fandoms there, but seeing as I have four ongoing WIPs, I refuse to start something else (also, I'm not sure I'm capable of writing something without crossing it over with Doctor Who...)


Ooooh, hooray Craig Farguson! Yeah, didn't he have a Big Bang sketch where he tried to convince Sheldon he should be his new friend cos he's a Doctor Who geek? I think that was him... ;)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, didn't he have a Big Bang sketch where he tried to convince Sheldon he should be his new friend cos he's a Doctor Who geek?

Why, yes he did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoNs4i6yDns

:D

[pitry.livejournal.com]

Mwa ha ha! :D Oh, Sheldon.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw *is sad*

I totally understand on the work front, though. It's been the same for me till now - this time of the year is usually a nightmare!

Although no requests is no guideline whatsover - four of my offers have no requests. People can make loads more offers than requests, so there could be someone out there dying to write it. Or not. Which is a pain as regards this sort of thing.

But that's a bit sad. (From a purely selfish point of view, anyway.)

Good luck with Turn Left though - it will feel good if you get it done!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I actually think it bothered me more that half of my intended offers had no requests. I wanted at least a *chance* of being assigned to write them! Also, it didn't help to know that even if I did sign up, those fandoms would go into a cyber-black hole where no one would see that someone was willing to write them. *sniff*

It was a hard decision, though, and I went back and forth on it many times. I nailed down my offers, including characters, and I even wrote out the optional details for my requests. But last night I decided that as I was still really hesitating about it, it was better to stay out this year. Yuletide's a big commitment, and so it's not something I want to take on unless I'm sure about it. Besides, when I sat down and asked myself what type of story would make me happiest for Yuletide, I realized that it was my own WIP. So, I'm going to try to work on that!

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

I'm planning to do a sort of pseudo-Yuletide where I work on a long-overdue piece from another ficathon (Help_Haiti actually - it was due last Valentine's Day, so when I say "long overdue" I mean it!), aiming for the Yuletide deadline and wordcount to see if I can handle it, but if I miss the wordcount there's no harm done because I only offered 300-500 words originally. And whatever I've got done by Christmas Eve I plan to put up.

Want to join me? Maybe we could rope in some other non-Yuletiders with neglected WIPs. Although if it extended too far we'd need a comm...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I'd love to join! A writing group for non-Yuletiders with December fic goals sounds like a great idea to me.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

By the way, if you're interested, there's a community over on Dreamwidth that is doing a WIP challenge. I participated for November, and it's made a huge difference. They're doing it again in December. You say what challenge you want to take on -- a certain number of words written, a chapter finished, a fic finished, whatever -- and then get assigned to a "buddy group." You can then ask your buddies for whatever support and encouragement will help you meet your challenge. There are also weekly check-in posts for the whole community. Despite the "challenge" aspect of it, it's very casual and informal -- all about helping writers, and not about causing additional stress. It's about you deciding to set a goal, and the community trying to help you meet it.

If you want to take a look, the sign-up for the December challenge is here: http://writethisfanfic.dreamwidth.org/7114.html

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that looks lovely! I don't usually do well with fic-things where one has to do any more than drop random comments on posts like we do in fic_rush, but we shall see... I've signed up, anyway!

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, I think that's proved to be a problem - according to the comm, everything's sorted... except 6 people whose offers don't match anyone's request. Had we been able to see it (and clearly, it was an issue with trying not to kill AO3, so not really anyone's fault!), that could have been avoided. There's a post over there with people offering up their unwanted offers and people are immediately leaping on those, and giving them prompts, so it shows the love is out there & somehow that needs working round for next year.

So I'm still waiting on tenterhooks to find out what my assignment is! They said end of play today, which will be US time, so tomorrow for me. Thank goodness I have tomorrow off in lieu of yesterday, or I'd be hopping about in impatience!

So, good luck with Turn Left! And maybe you can have fun with NYR in January as a... reward, or something... ;-D

And I completely get your reasons - it was why I didn't want to sign up previously when this time of year was so busy. Hopefully, if I get on and write it fairly quickly, that won't be an issue this year.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you're right, it really made a difference not being able to see the offered fandoms this year. It may have also made a difference not being able to see the requests until fairly late, as I don't know how many people went back and re-did sign-ups (although I know some people did).

I just saw that assignments went out, so I hope you like yours and good luck with it! I'll be here cheering you on!

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, yes, they have - and mine is very nice!

I won't say anything unwise, but I'm relieved, because yesterday I went off to double-check what I actually had offered, what with the swapping to include a couple more needy fandoms at the last minute... and found I had added one I had completely forgotten about, and was sort of staring at it in horror, wandering what had come over me... :lol: So, it wasn't that one, I'm happy to say. (Although I would have been able to do it, but... 8-o)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

found I had added one I had completely forgotten about, and was sort of staring at it in horror

LOL, I think that happens to quite a few people -- you get caught up in offering as many fandoms as you can, and while in the moment you think that you'll be fine as long as you've heard of it, but then later you go, "Wait, no, I offered this? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" But I'm glad it's worked out!

[tempestas-inu.livejournal.com]

Aww.... I know what it's like knowing that a particular fandom of yours doesn't have much reception, it is rather disheartening. Good luck with writing Turn Left though! I look forward to it! :D

Seeing Matt on the Late Late show really was surreal... and awesome! XD He seemed so fidgety and nervous but he looked like he was having fun and fit in rather well with the craziness.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

He did seem a little nervous, didn't he? I also felt really sad when he said that it was his only talk show interview in the States. It reminded me of that clip from the Emmy awards where the interviewers were fawning over Amazing Race host guy and completely ignoring David Tennant, who was standing around in the background looking a bit lost.

Being a Doctor Who fan in the U.S. is very lonely. Thank god we have the internet! And both David and Matt will be big stars here someday. I have faith!