Sour notes
Feb. 29th, 2008 07:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maudite_a_deuxFirst order of business: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beautifulfic, I owe you an email and I haven't had the juice to type up the several pages of notes I took while waiting for an excruciatingly long print job at work. I will eventually get to it, and thank you hugely for offering to let me bounce things off you.
Next: Something else that's been jarring me lately when I read fanfic is how often I see taciturn, tough-guy characters suddenly turn around and start referring to their partner as "love" or "baby". This is not something that comes so quickly -- if ever -- in real life when you're dealing with this sort of character, particularly the strong, silent type.
Maybe I'm just projecting; while I'm not the strong, silent type, I do suffer from an excess of pride and serious intimacy issues. The point being that it takes me months, if not years, of being in a very close relationship before I'll use any kind of pet name with anybody, and even then it's not "baby" or "love" or "sweetie". (Those names are reserved for my cats, with whom I have no shame.) I call my partners by name. I'm too concerned with my dignity to say anything I consider "cutesy". Cute bugs me. I'll call people "baby" in a joking way, but it's usually dripping with sarcasm.
The point being that people like, say, Aya, Crawford, Kanda, Mori, Kyouya, Satoshi, Touya, etc., really shouldn't suddenly turn into Mr. Romance just because they had buttsecks a few times. Even getting any of these guys to admit they like someone would be a real chore. It's going to take a while before they're comfortable enough to talk about their feelings. In some cases, they may *never* actually admit to it. And that's a lot of the fun of writing characters like this.
Which is not to say none of these characters could have a romantic side. They might make romantic gestures out of the blue -- even really grand ones -- before they're able to actually come out and say how they feel. I can see Aya quietly filling a room with lit candles and flowers and then trying to act like nothing's out of the ordinary -- but I can't see him calling anyone "baby".
Anyway. Yeah. I think about this stuff way too damn much.
On that note, if anyone's looking for a beta for oneshots or shortfic, let me know. I write for a living (technical writing), and while I'm not much of a fiction writer, I can edit fiction like nobody's business. I'm very thorough, I have magic typo radar, and while I'm excellent with grammar and such, I work with the style of the writer. Flow is more important than perfect grammar. Clunky sentences are something up with which I shall not put. I'll also comment on continuity, characterization, etc. as much as seems reasonable. And! I'll be nice about it! (But not *too* nice.)
I don't have the bandwidth to take on anything too long right now, but I'll gladly do oneshots or shortfic, even if I'm not familiar with the fandom.
And lastly: Everybody but me is in love with "Bump Of Chicken", but I find them unlistenable because the lead singer is always just a tiny bit flat. I have perfect pitch, and it makes my teeth ache.
Most of the songs don't seem all that strong to me, either, but it's a little hard for me to tell when I can only listen a few seconds into the vocals. I tried, I really did. I've listened to a bunch of their songs now... 30 seconds or so of them, anyway. I just can't get through them.
You may feel free to bludgeon me now.
beautifulfic, I owe you an email and I haven't had the juice to type up the several pages of notes I took while waiting for an excruciatingly long print job at work. I will eventually get to it, and thank you hugely for offering to let me bounce things off you.Next: Something else that's been jarring me lately when I read fanfic is how often I see taciturn, tough-guy characters suddenly turn around and start referring to their partner as "love" or "baby". This is not something that comes so quickly -- if ever -- in real life when you're dealing with this sort of character, particularly the strong, silent type.
Maybe I'm just projecting; while I'm not the strong, silent type, I do suffer from an excess of pride and serious intimacy issues. The point being that it takes me months, if not years, of being in a very close relationship before I'll use any kind of pet name with anybody, and even then it's not "baby" or "love" or "sweetie". (Those names are reserved for my cats, with whom I have no shame.) I call my partners by name. I'm too concerned with my dignity to say anything I consider "cutesy". Cute bugs me. I'll call people "baby" in a joking way, but it's usually dripping with sarcasm.
The point being that people like, say, Aya, Crawford, Kanda, Mori, Kyouya, Satoshi, Touya, etc., really shouldn't suddenly turn into Mr. Romance just because they had buttsecks a few times. Even getting any of these guys to admit they like someone would be a real chore. It's going to take a while before they're comfortable enough to talk about their feelings. In some cases, they may *never* actually admit to it. And that's a lot of the fun of writing characters like this.
Which is not to say none of these characters could have a romantic side. They might make romantic gestures out of the blue -- even really grand ones -- before they're able to actually come out and say how they feel. I can see Aya quietly filling a room with lit candles and flowers and then trying to act like nothing's out of the ordinary -- but I can't see him calling anyone "baby".
Anyway. Yeah. I think about this stuff way too damn much.
On that note, if anyone's looking for a beta for oneshots or shortfic, let me know. I write for a living (technical writing), and while I'm not much of a fiction writer, I can edit fiction like nobody's business. I'm very thorough, I have magic typo radar, and while I'm excellent with grammar and such, I work with the style of the writer. Flow is more important than perfect grammar. Clunky sentences are something up with which I shall not put. I'll also comment on continuity, characterization, etc. as much as seems reasonable. And! I'll be nice about it! (But not *too* nice.)
I don't have the bandwidth to take on anything too long right now, but I'll gladly do oneshots or shortfic, even if I'm not familiar with the fandom.
And lastly: Everybody but me is in love with "Bump Of Chicken", but I find them unlistenable because the lead singer is always just a tiny bit flat. I have perfect pitch, and it makes my teeth ache.
Most of the songs don't seem all that strong to me, either, but it's a little hard for me to tell when I can only listen a few seconds into the vocals. I tried, I really did. I've listened to a bunch of their songs now... 30 seconds or so of them, anyway. I just can't get through them.
You may feel free to bludgeon me now.
