The FV & TTT Social Thread

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Saint Kurt
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by Saint Kurt »

This forum is really quiet lately.

In Nightmare's thread Northstar suggested we speak up and review and while I'm thrilled to see such a prolific writer, neither the evo universe nor smut is my thing. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just not my preference.

I know that both Slarti and Nacht are busy, and I'm pretty busy too, but this is where I go when I want to take a break from studying so if there's nothing going on here it means I have nothing to entertain me. So I'm kind of overstepping my bounds here in making this thread, but I don't think anyone's going to care.

Here's what I was thinking:

Fan fiction communities have a way of waxing and waning; I've seen it happen over and over again. Part of what makes a community prolific is the newness of the subject matter - so given the attention X2 brought to Nightcrawler, that's probably not going to happen again until 2006. However, the other thing is that the participants get to know each other not just as authors but as people. It's very hard to give feedback to someone who's completely faceless and it's even harder to challenge/dare them to write more/better/different. Part of the fun is the comradery.

To use myself as an example - I didn't just start posting Even Angles have Scars, I introduced myself, and then if you read through the thread you get sort of a mini-autobiography along with Kurt's story. My cat died, I spent like a month in the hospital and wrote like I was on drugs, I got accepted in vet school. I didn't mean for this to happen, but when I look back on the thread, I think it's why it has so many views - it was like "reality internet" or whatever you want to call it.

I know that off topic posting is frowned upon so I thought I would make a thread where it was encouraged. This is the thread where you introduce yourself, talk about your day, your cat, your neighbor's cat, and let the people know who you are whether you are a reader or a writer. What are your so busy doing that you're not writing about or drawing pictures of nightcrawler?

This could be the biggest dumb idea I've ever had and it might fall to the bottom with no posts ever, but I'm tired of reading Lemony Snicket books for study breaks. Plus I've got chapters written of the sequel to Even Angels have Scars and I don't even know if there's an audience out there.

So there you have it: my brilliant plan to get us all writing and reading each other's stuff. So get posting because as curious as I am to find out what happens now that the Baudelaire orphans have arrived at Lake Lachrymose, I'd like to read some Nightcrawler stories.

-e
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by Nightmare »

Hah! At least you'll get one reply, mine. I think a social thread is a good idea. And please post your sequel, it's a beautiful story.

I've been consumed by my story lately, so I haven't had much of a life to chat about. I'm the kind of person who thinks a story should speak for itself, and it annoys me to have people beg for reviews, so I try not to do it myself.

But a glimpse behind the pen isn't a bad idea. I'm a forty-something housewife impatiently waiting for my 19 year old son to move out of the house, and take his fiance with him. I raid with my guild on Everquest several times a week, and I like science fiction, in any medium.

My favorite new hobby is a constructible card game called Pirates of the Spanish Main, and it's expansion, Pirates of the Crimson Coast. You punch out these styrene parts of sailing ships and assemble them as your game pieces.

As I play it, I think how much Kurt would like the game, but how frustrated he'd be with the teeny tiny pieces, and the 15mm on-a-side dice, poor guy. =)

And in a related note, we've found a song by Tom Smith recently called "Talk Like A Pirate Day", with more pirate puns than Kurt can shake his tail at... Arrrrr!
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by buri103 »

I like this. And your story, Zamweasel, was gorgeous....

I'm an 18-year-old college student who loves eating, sleeping, drawing and reading and fantisizing, yet sucks at writing, so when I discovered fanfiction, it was like the opening of a whole new world for me.

Forgive me for feeding off your artistic endeavors...;)

Recently rekindled my love of X-men, Nightcrawler(of course) and Storm in particular, and am now a bonafide comic addict, though I have limited myself only to the Uncanny X-men, Nightcrawler, X-23, and Fables series, so not too bad....

I'm currently listening to Maroon 5 "Sunday Morning" on repeat, though as I write this, I've taken repeat off to listen to the rest of the CD. It''s vuuuury good...

In other news, found myself missing Left Turn at Westchester immensely....

Should be in bed now. Oh, well.



:D
25 And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying Where is the flaming sword which was given unto thee?

26 And the Angel said, I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next.

27 And the Lord did not ask him again.
~Good Omens

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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by Rowena »

It is a brilliant idea, Zam! "A glimpse behind the pen..." I like that! :D This one of those things I've always wondered about and even longed for, but I've been too intimidated to ask.

So, about me...

I'm a history student and I am always writing. When I'm not doing research for school projects, I'm keeping in practice by writing original and fanfiction stories. That said, the reason it's taking me so long to write Belasco's Beatrice and Small Steps, Great Leaps is because of school and also because a lot of crazy things have been going on at home lately. I've been going to interviews and trying out for plays and going to fencing practice four times a week as well as helping out my grandma, who's just now getting better after spending time in the hospital, and helping out with the State Science Fair, which consumes an enormous amount of time--especially on weekends. Another thing that's been taking up a lot of time lately is my passion for movies. One of the movie rental places near me just had a massive sale of all their old VHSes and I couldn't resisit the opportunity to snatch up their classics. So, lots of my usual nocturnal writing time has been taken up with my enormous box of new (to me) movies. I've nearly exhausted the supply now, though I've still got to watch "The General," "Modern Times," and "The Lost Weekend." :D

I haven't been idle when it comes to Nightcrawler fanfiction, however. If you go to Rel's site, Kuroro Faith, there's a St. Patrick's Day competition going on there that was initiated by me. If you're interested, please feel free to enter something! I'm still not sure if I should or not because I am the person who came up with the idea and I don't know if that would be right.

I'm an avid reader and I love science fiction, especially stories about robots. Four of my favorite authors are Isaac Asimov, Diana Wynne Jones, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Douglas Adams. My favorite play is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (which was made into a fantastic movie), and my favorite book in all the world is Flatterland by Ian Stewart. I am utterly fascinated by the concepts of quantum physics and aerodynamics even though I couldn't do the math if my life depended on it. I adore airplanes--especially Spitfires and the incredible biplanes of WWI. I'm so much of a Trekkie that I actually own a Starfleet uniform and a pair of Vulcan ears. There've actually been a couple of Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men cross-overs--one comic and one book called Star Trek: TNG/X-Men: Planet X by Michael Jan Friedman in which Nightcrawler and Data (my favorite Star Trek character) actually work together!!!!!!! I've been planning a cross-over story of my own where Data and Kurt solve a Sherlock Holmes mystery on the holodeck, I just haven't gotten to it yet. It's on my fanfiction To Do list, which is very long.

I like Nightcrawler because he has a truly noble, tolerant, understanding character and he was AWESOME in the early Excalibur comics, which are the greatest and most creative and well-drawn comics I've ever read. I first saw him in the old X-Men animated series. Most unfortunately, he only appeared in, like, two or three episodes. I was very little then, but his words always stuck with me. He said, "Would it be so hard to see the world through different eyes," or something very close to that. His words just got to me--but it wasn't just his words. It was the whole scene, his whole situation. In fact, that might even be the reason I ended up so fascinated by history. If so, I owe a lot to Nightcrawler, and the least I can do is write him a few stories in return. :D What's really interesting about writing for him, though, is that in certain ways he's my opposite. His heart leads him, whereas I am lead almost entirely by my head.


*******

[I deleted this next bit when I was at school in a sudden attack of self-consciousness, but since you saw it anyway and were so incredibly kind and understanding in your response, I put it back. Now you get to see how creepy it can be to have a semi-photographic memory. Some days I can't remember who played the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz (Ray Bolger) and others I can write out exactly an essay I wrote a month ago! So, here's what I wrote yesterday.]
It's very hard to give feedback to someone who's completely faceless and it's even harder to challenge/dare them to write more/better/different.
OK...with this in mind I'm going to risk a confession. My biggest fear when it comes to my writing is that it contains a certain...flaw. I don't know if you've noticed it and I'm rather scared to point it out, but I feel I need advice and help with this matter and that's (hopefully) what this kind of writing community is for so I'll just come out and say it. I don't think I'm very good at portraying deep emotions. Brother, sister, friend, basic fears, fights, and fun, that I'm fine with. Irrational hatred, intense love, that kind of thing I always fear falls flat or even borders on cliched. I never know what to say or how to say it. That's the biggest problem I have when I'm writing, and that's really why I started "Belasco's Beatrice"--to force myself to confront this issue. And I've been trying, but it's been incredibly difficult for me. The reason is....I am, well, let us say socially challenged. I've been diagnosed with mild shadow autism, so even though I could easily join Mensa I'd be painfully unsure of how to interact if I went to a meeting. I am very like Data in that respect, so much so it's eerie. I've even been told (and it wasn't a compliment) that I'm exactly like a female Data. I'm terrific with logical analysis of sources, writing research papers, and planning out convoluted, intricately twisted plotlines, I'm an extremely fast learner and in everything but numbers I have a photographic memory, but when it comes to describing human interactions from the inside I often find myself confused and unsure whether I'm doing it right. Like Data (and even Gil Grissom from CSI), when it comes to human relationships there are certain things that I just don't "get." That's why I rely so heavily on the comments I get here and why they mean so very much to me.

This has been really hard for me to say...I haven't really told anyone before. It's just, I want my writing to be as good as it can be and I really need to be able to understand and convey these kinds of emotions and interactions if I'm ever to be even a half-way decent historian. Even though I write them for fun, I view my fanfiction endeavors as important learning tools on several levels. Your comments have already helped me enormously--I've grown far more confident in my writing than I used to be because of your support--but there still seems to be this emptiness, this detachment lingering just behind the words that I really feel I have to work on filling.

And that's probably far, far, far more than I ever should have said. I should probably stop now before I embarrass myself (too late). I only risk revealing all this now because I've come to respect your opinions of my work so very much and I've been aching for advice on this matter for a very, very, very, very long time without anyone to ask. So, thank you. And if any of you feel you need help improving a certain aspect of your writing, I'd be more than willing to offer my assistance.
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
~The Doctor, Survival

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~The Doctor, Robot

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~Hawkeye Pierce, M.A.S.H.

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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by Shadow_Dancer »

Zam,

I'll repeat that this really was a good idea. And you certainly are correct, the volume of posts on this forum has slowed considerably, especially lately.

Just a little bit about myself -

I am a college biology professor specializing in genetics (thus the particular interest in the X-Men) that has just turned a significant corner in age. Which corner I’m not saying LOL. However, to be honest, I’m getting bored with teaching the same thing over and over. While I’d prefer to work in research (The college I work for is small and has no graduate school or research department), the grant money is so scarce these days it’s hardly worth the effort to write proposals.

I would like to give up teaching and become a novelist (I already have one novel outlined), either fantasy or sci-fi, and while I am published, it’s in the science field and not fiction. I took up fanfiction as practice for when I start writing my own original works. After almost two years I am closer to seeing that dream become a reality.

I’ve been a little slower in producing stories lately, not because I’ve lost interest but because I have my fingers in too many things right now. Besides teaching I am doing web pages for my college, which takes up much of my spare time. I also have a very rebellious teenage girl who saps not only my time but my creativity.

Add to that the other types of writing projects I have going and my time is limited. I took on a character at the RPG Left Turn at Westchester (Penance) and will be continuing that character at the spin-off X-Corporations, along with picking up a second character. I can’t say anything more about the second character because he has not yet been approved. I’ve found that RPing is challenging and an experience that has matured my writing style.

My other project is a novel length Nightcrawler fanfiction piece called Steel and Spindrift that I don’t want to post much of until it’s completed (although I have posted the prologue and chapter 1 in my Live Journal archives). I don’t have much time to work on this so it’s been almost two years in the making. I am also reluctant to post it here. This fanfiction has several O.C’s and it has been my experience that this board in particular looks down their noses at original characters, particularly those that are romantic interests to Kurt or have major roles. I know what a Mary Sue is and have tried to avoid writing one. However, if my fanfics are practice to write original work, I have to know that I can develop my own believable characters. Thus the main female, her family, a couple of students and one of the main antagonists are all of my own design. I must admit that I’m afraid if I post it here it will either get flamed or ignored.

If any of you are interested in this story, you can check out this link - Steel and Spindrift. I’ve gotten next to no feedback on it from my LJ friends, although my beta reader adores it so far. I wouldn’t mind any honest criticism, good or bad. That’s why I’m writing fanfic in the first place, to become a better fiction writer.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream." Mark Twain

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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by Nightmare »

/Hugs Rowena...

I had a similar problem... emotions I could do, but sexual situations I'd freeze on, being deep in vanilla-land, myself. After an original hard core story, and the two here, I'm comfortable writing any erotica or romance now.

Emotions are harder, and I sometimes think you have to go through times of intensity to call it up in your writing...

In school, I was intelligent, nerdy, and un-girl like. I would get literal gangs of kids who picked on me. I recall checking out jumping ropes at recess to swing around me to keep the bullies at bay, and getting punched unconscious on someone's doorstep... So I know alienation, and groundless hatred.

I'm the youngest of four daughters, and when the third sister left home, he just up and left my mother and me, leaving us to be supported by her step-father and welfare... So I know abandonment.

My first child was illegitimate, and I gave him up for adoption, feeling a pain I cannot describe to this day. Then I made contact again with the father, whom I'm still married to, and we got him back. To no avail... the state took him away, 'for his own good' they said, while leaving us our younger son. The elder was raised by the woman who was supposed to help counsel us be a better family, in a deep betrayal of trust I still resent.

He lives in the area, and it is a knife in my heart when we run into him, and there he is, so obviously our son, in his looks, and in his interests, and yet he won't acknowledge us. He acts like we aren't even there, although he has developed some sort of rapport with his brother, so that's something. But it hurts to be shunned by someone I gave birth to.

But I'm the only one among my sisters to still be in my first marriage, and my husband and I get closer all the time. My youngest is a pain, but I know he loves us, and that helps when the darkness gets a little thick.

When I need to write something emotional, I have a wealth of scars to tap... and indeed, in writing such things I can bring myself catharsis enough to get through another day. Is it any wonder I'm under treatment for depression?

I admire Kurt Wagner, who has gone through most of this, and worse, and still maintains his optimism and joie de vivre. It's an example I can try to emulate.


Night- knows-what-angst-is-all-about -mare.
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by CurlyyHairGirl »

:eekI'm sorry to see that the flow in this forum as done and gone down to a trickle, an feel somewhat guilty and sad.

As some of you know, I'm 16, still in high school. Second semester is when the teachers tend to cram as much homework, test, projects and exams in as they possibly can, this means that my freetime is being soaked up and my energy drained. On top of this, as I mentioned in my last post to Rowena, My grandfather is not in the best of health right now, sadly, we have been informed that he is terminal. He has some kind of mass in his brain that the doctor can't ID with an MRI because of his pacemaker, lung cancer that showed up in the last eight months and poor blood circulation with a high tendancy to get clots in his legs, making it painful for him to walk.

My absence has been due to both of these matters, school and spending almost every extra hour with my grandparents helping out.

I have had most of this morning to check up on all the threads and the stories and just nearly made it to school on time, and this time right after school to post this.

I want to thank those who continue to write their fics despite the so-called 'drought' in this forum, it gives me something more cheerful to think about.

Nightmare: I am sorry for not posting any comments about you newest story here. I really do love it. And thinking about what your beta reader said, it must have felt ignored...but hopefully you do not beleive that of me. I truely am enjoying it, and I also know what it's like to write something and have it be ignored...though my stories just bombed for my lack of writing skills.

I have endless ideas for fantastic stories myself, but unless it's a short story, I simply lack the stamina to write a good one. So instead, I vent my creativity through drawing. Every once and a while, I post something up.

Nightcrawler was not the stone that I used to stand on in the beginning, but when I found out about this character, I started to really think about the joys in life vs. every thing wrong with it. If you were to meet me, you would understand why, I am almost always in a positive mood with some bumps and blocks in the way.

Rowena: As I have stated before, I am yur slave .LOL. and you don't need to be told by me after every chapter, that you are a fantastic writer and put a tremendous bti of thought and imagination into them. And the same applies to Zam. Don't hide your faces, I know you both have goofey grins from ear to ear that would only seem right if you werew both holding signs that read : LIFE IS FEEDING BAKED ALASKA TO ZOMBIES.

ShadowDancer: I am open hearted to stories with OC's, in fact, alot of times they can be so much better because the reader knows nothing about their personality, past, or preferences. It takes alot to make an OC seem real, let alone multiple OC's, and they do indeed help with writing skills. As you said, people do seem to look down on OC's and Mary Sues, then there are the people who take perfectly good fics and twist them to make tham seem like Mary Sues *glares at sister* (Can you believe she thinks Captain Blood is one! The nerve. She hasn't even read it.)

My time is up. I want to say thanks again for taking the time to provide the community with these stupendous creations.

I love you all.


~Eryn
one name: Bruce Campbell
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by Saint Kurt »

I wanted to reply to this earlier (when Rowena's post was a lot longer I think...) but our professor sprung a surprise lecture on us during what I thought would be a free hour.

Vet school, for those who've never been there, is a lot like high school. There are only 100 people in a class and we all take the same classes at the same times. We spend most of our time in a single lecture hall and we have lockers - just like in high school. When we're not having lectures there most of us like to use our classroom to study in, mainly because we're just going to have to end up there anyways - why waste time transporting all our books and stuff somewhere else when we just have to bring them back an hour later? So we had a short lab and afterwards we all had the same idea of studying in the classroom ... I had just logged in and turned on my ipod when the professor comes back in, dims the lights and starts lecturing again! Not fair!

So I didn't get to chime in earlier.

But what I was going to say was this:

I really like fan activities that are involved like fan fiction or costume making. I discovered the two right around the same time and in both cases have very high standards. I used to have an email list for fan fic that was genre-less but had to do with published quality writing. I didn't write, but I was really into editing. Anyone who has ever let me beta read knows that I rip shit apart sentence by sentence. The list was mainly fan fic writers practicing their craft for the novels they were going to write someday and then a few people like me who liked to push people to write better. It was a cool list but like all things - it had its life span and went away.

Even Angels have Scars is the first time I tried to really write something (so I could rip my own work apart I guess). Every thing else I've done is short and kind of inconsequential. It's also the only time I've ever written a story in the same genre as a costume I was making. It was an interesting relationship. First it really helped me understand why the costume was the way it was as I learned about the character (both through research, comics reading, and making stuff up about him). Later, when the costume was done, it really changed my perspective of the character to play him every weekend - both in knowing how to play the character and in knowing what to write based on the kind of things that happened to me. It's particularly hard when I'm reading other people's stuff and judging characterization; I have to rein myself in and remind myself that I'm not the only person who understands who the character is.

As for writing deep emotions - I think that's something everyone has difficulty with. I do believe that you have to feel them to write them and there are people who take some hard knocks in their lives and there are those who don't. It's just the way it is. I used to work for Microsoft and was fairly high up in the ranks there. I owned sports cars and a cool loft in Seattle. I used to take winters off to snowboard because I could. Later I did the thing all ex-Microsoft employees do and started my own company. I had a lot of money but I was really unhappy. Then a series of really bad things happened to me and I lost all of it (well okay, some of it I gave up intentionally).

The end result: I live in a one room house that I think used to be a garage. I stretched my savings for as long as I could, but I have a lot of loans for vet school - in other words zero dollars. But hey - I'm in vet school and it's a lot cooler than what I was doing before. And to get from Seattle to here I had some amazing adventures and crazy stories. I feel like I'm lying when I talk about them except that they're true. I always joke that Nightcrawler is my patron saint because we have a lot in common. I'm an adoptee, a fencer, and a circus artist; it's also a tough call as to whose life is a bigger soap opera.

So about this I have to say: everyone's brain works differently and knowing where the limitations lie is a path to finding your strengths. On my old email list there was this woman who was very prolific but her stories were like stereo instructions: "And then he did this. And then he did that." On and on and on. She got very upset at my critiques because I was constantly asking her to do the same thing, break up these solid page long paragraphs of endless lists of discriptions of tasks. Finally I asked her what she did for a living and it turned out she was a rocket scientist of all things. And she wrote like a rocket scientist - in a way it made me go easier on her, but it also gave me something to think about when I write. My own previous writing experience has been software specs so when I look at my own work I always check very carefully to see that I'm not writing like a rocket scientist. So in a way Rowena - knowing your own enemy is over half of the battle. There are plenty of flaws in my writing, but I don't think that writing like a rocket scientist is one of them. :)

So - that's it for now. I have to go to fencing practice myself now - I started when I was 12 and had my big career highlight as a junior in college when I took 2nd in the Eastern Collegiate regionals on the varsity team. Now I'm like a 33 year old vet student trying to remember how to fence. I have really beautiful form but I'm slow as hell.

But this is cool. I've had a hell week of exams but I do have 5 chapters written of my new story - I want to do a bit of clean up before posting a few. And I'm still kicking around ideas for a title. You'd think now that I have a theme it would be easy, but it's actually worse.

-e
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by Rowena »

Wow, you guys are all so wonderfully open and understanding! And you've been through so much! No wonder your writing is so good. I understand just what you mean about life experience giving you the emotional foundations you need to create a story that is both moving and genuine, and that is exactly what concerns me about my own writing.

I've had lots of experiences both good and bad. I've traveled to many different states and met and become friends with loads of different people. I've been to a close family member's funeral. I studied in England for three months then was awarded a grant so I could return there and create an award winning 30 minute historical documentary on Hadrian's Wall, which I wrote, produced, directed, filmed, and edited all on my own. However, through everything I've always felt more like an observer than a participant, watching carefully until I was asked or forced to get involved and then always unsure of the rules. Because of this awkwardness, I got picked on or just plain ignored from elementary school all the way through high school, and even in college people tend to think I'm a bit eccentric--even my professors. But despite the fact that I always got top grades, I don't think the other kids saw me as a genuine nerd. They thought I was really smart but really weird, maybe even stand-offish, and definately different from them.

In elementary school I was seen as different because I could already read when I entered kindergarten and I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up. My kindergarten teacher didn't know what a paleontologist was and thought I was making up big words to look smart. She sent me down to the library to have the librarian look it up in the dictionary and lo and behold, there it was. A person who studies the fossilized remains of dinosaurs and other extinct animals. I think that was the start of my reputation as a weirdo. Soon after, I failed skipping and was put into a special needs gym class because I was so uncoordinated--a symptom of shadow autism. That helped foster the reputation. Then, in first grade I was so ahead in my reading that they put me in with the second graders. That probably clinched it. I've always had very long hair and I am very literal-minded, so maybe those qualities increased my weirdness factor too. I don't know. I never took any of the teasing and ignoring personally. In many cases, it just left me bewildered.

For example, in Jr. High there was this boy at the bus stop who always threw rocks at me. That really puzzled me. I kept asking him to explain why he was trying to hit me with rocks because I couldn't understand it. Was he playing a game or was he honestly trying to hurt me, and if so why would he want to do that? If it was a game, I thought I might be able to understand why everyone was laughing, but if he was trying to hurt me none of it made sense. Hurting people wasn't a laughing matter. He never answered, he just gave me funny looks or called names. Maybe he didn't like how quiet I was or that I was always standing by myself reading? Maybe he was angry because I never got mad at him or cried when a rock hit me, I just moved closer to the other kids at the stop? I asked my parents about it and they're the ones who got mad. After that, he really hated me but I just kept reading and eventually I guess he gave up on trying to provoke me.

I'm not quite that socially inept anymore--I've been working really hard to be less literal and more understanding of things that don't make immediete sense to me--but I'm still socially challenged. I can speak at great length and in great detail on many curent issues, historical topics, or scientific theories, but general small talk--forget it! Ask me about the weather, it'll take me a moment to stop myself from going outside to check it out! See why people have called me Data?

When it comes to basic high-school experiences, aside from classwork I didn't experience them. I didn't go to dances because I'm so uncomfortable in social situations and the food and music just weren't worth being trapped in a hot, crowded room for hours. I would have been by myself anyway, but that's never bothered me. I didn't go out with friends because no one asked me to and none of the people I knew were as interested as I was in identifying the plants that grew in the park or spending hours in old bookstores searching for antique history books with interesting inscriptions on the inside covers. They must have seen me as incredibly boring and bookish. I know I must have appeared awkward and strange and I certainly felt I was very much on the outside looking in. So, I played with my younger brother and sister and their friends and I made up games, plays, and stories for them to enjoy. Now that they're older, though, I draw on their social experiences for my stories.

You know what's funny though, for someone who's supposedly uncoordinated, I'm very good at walking and reading at the same time. I can even chew gum or eat a candy bar while I do it! :D I'm also surprisingly good at fencing, probably because it's such a precise sport focused on mental discipline and physical control, while I've always been terrible at any sport that involves running or catching balls. I'm a very slow, clumsy runner and I'm not at all competitive. But for all that, even now when the neighborhood kids are bored they come to me and I invent new games for them to play and I even play with them. If you want to know my age, my Dad jokes that I'm 22 going on 50 going on 9. :rolleyes

I identify with Kurt because he's so different. He knows what it's like to be on the outside of the giggling group, wondering why they're giggling and feeling like they don't accept or understand you. He's been puzzled by the cruelty of others and hurt by it, yet he strives to understand their hatred rather than returning it in kind--to see the world through their eyes rather than building walls in front of his own. That's one of the biggest goals I have when I write and when I do historical research--to truly comprehend the character's feelings and point of view rather than imposing my own. It's very difficult, but when it works it's also extremely rewarding.

What worries me, though, is that I don't "feel" it when I write about emotions; I plan everything out logically and objectively step by step according to the character's personality and motives, like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle. I start with the edges first, then fill it in according to color and shape. Unfortunately, emotions are inherently illogical and my own personality, hesitancy, and inhibitions often come through when I get to a tough spot a.k.a. a missing piece of the puzzle. I still have a great deal to work on and even more to learn. But I guess that's all part of the challenge, and the fun! :D

You know, that puzzle analogy could help explain why it can be so incredibly difficult to write or come up with a title for something that has a defined theme--because all the puzzle pieces that make up the story's tapestry have a specific shape and color which makes it more difficult to fill in the empty space just right when you find yourself with a missing piece!


Here's a picture I just finished sprucing up inspired by something CurlyyHairGirl said above. It's a stylized picture of me as I'd look if my hair was blue instead of brown and I'm holding a certain sign. I hope it shows up!
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
~The Doctor, Survival

"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."
~The Doctor, Robot

"If this isn't civilization, why am I standing in a bomb crater?"
~Hawkeye Pierce, M.A.S.H.

Rowena Zahnrei's Stories: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/526713/Rowena_Zahnrei
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Post by fourpawsonthefloor »

I think that this is a wonderful thread. I have been only in lurk mode here for the past couple of months as I have been very sick. Still trying to figure out what is going on, and I have to go to more specilists and have more tests run. One of the problems is general joint pain/inflammation, so most days typing isn't much fun. Thank goodness that it doesn't hurt to use the scroll button though! So everything, including the story that is partially posted is on the back burner, but I will get back at it when I am doing better. I am busily researching points on it that zam and hooded man pointed out in thier critique.

As for me, I feel quite a lot of familiarity reading here what others have written. I too was an outcast through most of my school years, was physically picked on as well, and I have a deep love of the written word. I also work in the animal welfare field, which is another deep passion of mine (a fact that I am sure no one here has missed :D).

I am enjoying writing little bits of fan fic, while realizing that I have a long way to go, but that is the whole point of it. Here I get practice, with many great people available to critique the heck out of it. Here I can learn from my mistakes, rather than just writing and writing (as I did as a teen) as before I was too embarrassed to show anyone.

Now as a 30 yr old with a little more life experience under my belt, I have gained more confidence and am able to step out of my comfort zone with more ease. The stuggles that I have endured (and sometimes am still enduring) make me the person that I am. Though I may not like having crappy things happen to me, I am grateful for the depth they give me in life. You simply cannot fully understand such conflict unless you have endured it.

It has slowed down here quite a bit, so hopefully we can get it going again. I wish you all well, and am eagerly awaiting further installments from you Zam!

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Post by Saint Kurt »

Ha ha! I can't say much on the subject of being an outcast because while I may have started as one, I pretty quickly turned it around and became the quintessintial class clown. I was still a loner (and always have been) but I was no longer a target of ridicule. Mainly I think because it's impossible to humiliate someone who doesn't get embarrassed.

So now I alter between the clown/loner persona depending on the kind of people I'm hanging out with. It's a little less defined when you're an adult. It also doesn't matter as much. For instance I had to run to a store to grab something the other night but I was wearing my dorky white fencing uniform and didn't have a complete change. I wanted it to be a run in- run out kind of thing but that never happens when you want it to. So it turned into this 2 hour shopping trauma in my knickers and a sweatshirt. In the end I realized that running around town in white nickers, knee socks, and white shoes on St. Patricks day was less traumatic than the fact that what I was trying to buy was a gift certificate for someone who had done me a favor and the amount of work it was turning into was starting to negate the favor. Still, I forged on in instead of a gift certificate for everyone's favorite yummy burrito joint (which didn't have gift certificates) she got one for Panera, which is also damn yummy.

And the whole screamingly white knickers right in the middle of U of I's bar district on green beer night? I've got bigger things to worry about than what a bunch of drunken college students think of my pants...

I realized I haven't even mentioned my own experience with online RPGs. Depending on how they are run these can be a lot of fun and very organized as well. Despite this, they are not for me. As a writer it would seem that I don't play well with others. I was pretty sad to discover this at the time, but while I was cleaning up the plot for my own story I could sort of see why it didn't work out. I'm just too much of a control freak.

But I think a less paranoid writer could really have a lot of fun there. I kind of had to reassess my "creative time" and how I wanted to use it. I'd spent a whole semester in the game and a lot of that time was spent angry about the way plot lines were going. There's only so many times you can tell yourself "it's just a game - have fun" before you realize that maybe you have to tell youself that so often because it's not fun for you. And given how little free time I get - I feel it was the right decision to leave. Who knows maybe in a different time of my life I would have been fun; I write with tight control over everything - the characters, the world they're in, the plot but maybe in a year or two I'll learn how to loosen up. Maybe by the time I'm finished with vet school I might really enjoy playing in an RPG.

I'm open to anything. For now however, I'm going to keep playing with myself. It's much more fun. :smirk

One dream I've had, though I'll admit it is utter vanity: I've always wanted to see other writers take my army of original Circus Gehlhaar characters along with Kurt and the cannon characters and write with them - mainly I just wanted to see what other people might do with them. There's this whole "Circus Gehlhaar 90210" thing happening towards the end of Even Angels have Scars where everyone is in their late teens (or early 20's at the most) and I couldn't take advantage of that period because I had the plot to move forward, but I've always wanted to read stories about their antics during those years. It's the one regret I have - that there just wasn't a place for about 30 pages of frivolilous teenager-ness right in the middle of the crux of the main plot.

As for this thread: I don't know why I said to myself "I think I should try to jump start the creative forum" other than the fact that it has always been a cool place to post stuff thus far and I didn't want to see that go away.

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Post by Nightmare »

I was always too earnest to do the class clown routine, but I married one, so I know how they work. :D

Just wanted to reiterate that on "Innocent of Evil", for those of you that are reading it, that I'm looking for comments as to what y'all think of what's going on, and what is to happen next.

=)
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Post by InterNutter »

I guess I'd better step forward with my five cents.

In my youth, which I try not to abandon despite the emotional scars, I was the geeky weedy kid who always got picked on. And who was absolute pants at anything resembling sports or co-ordination ;) I could also create entire worlds out of building blocks and assorted toys. Playsets? Feh! Who needed playsets when one has access to wood offcuts [sanded and varnished - my family's a mob of consumate scroungers] "proper" building blocks, a hodgepodge of matchbox cars and a variety of cheapie dolls? Oh, and string. Can't have a good imaginary world-in-a-room without half a ton of string criss-crossing the whole arena...

I didn't fit in with a lot of my age-mates. Hell, I taught kids older than I was how to read for themselves [a pox on see-and-say, say I!] and regularly got certificates for my good behaviour in class... what they didn't know is that I was only peripherally paying attention :D I swear, I spent most of my life inside my own imagination.

...which, of course, got me endlessly bullied.

Fighting back was *SO* not an option, dobbing just earned payback, and insulting them... I could *just* get away with if I picked big enough words and found a decent enough hiding place, afterwards. I got along a lot better with my teachers than I ever did with my contemporaries.

High school was hell. Plain and simple. It was a world in which *EVERYONE* my age was obsessed with sex and appearances, and I was singled out for being a dorky voluntary virgin. Plus my allergies to the drugs of choice [smoking and beer before grade 10 - fun peers. Not] left me with few other options. By the end of it, my self-image was a nuclear fallout zone.

I *think* I've got over most of it [32, married, 1.5 kids ] and half of dealing with the psychological scarring has been through writing. The other half seems to slip out as self-debilitating humour.

I've *always* been writing, ever since about age seven, I've been making up stories. There hasn't been a day when I've *NOT* been noodling with some plotbunny or something at some hour. And, since my life tends to resemble a Bitch-Slap by God(tm) at times, I reckon I have enough emotional wells to draw from. There's room for improvement - there's *always* room for improvement - but I'm getting there.

Alas, my efforts at writing novels have fallen by the wayside. I get too involved in stand-alone fiction, and that's not a good thing when your kid's a 3YO houdini with a penchant for exploring where he really aught not to go.

However, there is *fanfic*. I'd go nuts if I couldn't write *something*, and the dear blue fuzzy one's always been close to my heart ^_^ He's my fave hero 'cause he's everything I ever wanted to be [including blue and fuzzy - I always have been bizarre] :D But I couldn't write for the comicverse 'cause the plot kept changing :D [true story, I have half-comix drawn in a folio somewhere, each one represents my attempt to do fanfic before the next ish came out. I stopped when it did, tried to absorb, and started over again.

Fortunately for the art world, I got back into actual fiction with a minimum of fuss - DaVinci Syndrome is fun to play with [Ooo! Shiny!] and spent free instants scribbling away with maniacal glee ^_^

Evo!Kurt calls to me... both because he's everything I was - bad self image et al - and 'cause he has the *potential* to become the swashbuckler I know and love :D Movie!Kurt gets in there 'cause I want him to grow a bit more than the flattish version that X2 gave us... Comic!Kurt... I've lost the plot. I liked it back in the early days of Excalibur - when things were *fun*.

My only literary letdown at the mome seems to be *finishing* stuph. I never get to an end. It's maddening...

[/babble]
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by bluefooted »

Good idea for a thread - I've wanted to get to know some of the people around here for awhile, although I've mostly just been lurking for the last few months.

As a person who just draws things, I've always felt a little disconnected from the rest of the community. Maybe it's the same for fanfiction writers, but you writer-types just seem more vocal to me. That might just be the way things are - there's more to discuss about a story than a picture. I feel like kind of a fandom-slacker. Anyway, my posting here is really sporadic... although sometimes I'll have a good run for a while :D

Anyway, what can I say about myself and how my life influences the fannish things I do? Well... I'm a PhD student in biology - 4th year now - and I mainly study how and why lizard displays evolve in the way that they do. I know, I know... it's groundbreaking work ;) Anyway, I teach a lot (I've pretty much taught every type of biology class you could possibly take!) and get to spend my summers in a tent in the mountains, getting scratched-up and bitten by flies. It's fun catching lizards and vaulting over the rattlesnake that guards the entrance to the pit toilet :) I guess I tend to approach my art in a naturalistic sort of way - using more organic influences in my style. I read an insane amount of books - so many, in fact, that I recently cancelled my cable so I could buy more.

Kurt's always been my second favorite comic character - after Chamber came along - but I've always enjoyed drawing Kurt better. And I like drawing him in a non-comic style for the most part - putting my own spin on things, I guess. But I enjoy him in all his incarnations. Even though I don't comment a lot, I hang around because I really like to see everyone else's interpretations. That's about it, I guess. I draw what I like, when I like. Sometimes I'll do a butt-load, and then I'll go months without doing a single art-related thing. Lately, I've been focusing on non-fanart stuff: I have a small gallery show coming up and I need a few more pieces to fill the space.

Anyway, nice to meet you all!
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Post by Saint Kurt »

so many, in fact, that I recently cancelled my cable so I could buy more.
Yay! Another one sees the light.

Though I own a television to watch movies on, it has not been hooked up to any kind of cable or TV reception since 1994.

Krikes. I was so busy reading and stuff that I forgot to celebrate 10 years with out TV... I didn't even realize how long it had been until just now. Go figure.

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Post by Maelstrom »

At this point, I really don't have an excuse for not tossing in.... :whistle

It's amazing how many of us are in our 30s. I'm going to be 37 in May. I'm an only child, part of the phenomenon of the 70's called a "latchkey kid". Basically, common wisdom dictated it was better to divorce than to have the kid live in an angry, sniping environment, and women's lib was getting in full swing, so a lot of single moms were created about then. (Now they tell you to "stick it out for the kid's sake". :rolleyes) That meant mom went to work and kid came home and let themselves into an empty house. (Now it's so common that it's not even mentioning, but then it was a big deal.) And I moved a lot. Not as much as an army brat, but still, we didn't stay in one place more than a few years at a time. That, coupled with (just like the rest of you) a high IQ, enhanced reading skills, and a lousy temper (okay, maybe that part isn't just like the rest of you....), meant I was bully-bait. The kids teased me constantly, I thought most of them were immature and stupid... all together now: "I didn't get along with my peers, and liked the teachers a lot more".

*Man*, this is all sounding so familiar! It's like we've all got a common template!

What this all boiled down to is that I didn't have many friends, let alone friends at school. I read and watched TV a lot, and in 1973 (ish) the networks put the original Star Trek into syndication, so mom sat me down in front of that. (I was hooked immediately.) I picked up comic books sporatically on the news stand; mostly those "kiddie" books like Richie Rich, but occasionally I picked up stuff that had Sub Mariner in it (he kinda looked like Spock). I tried to collect the Invaders when I could (WWII Marvel superhero group, consisting of Sub Mariner, Cap. A and Bucky, two Human Torches, and later on a "Quicksilver" clone named Spitfire), but I was frustrated by the fact that it seemed impossible to collect each issue: the stores weren't good about keeping them in stock.

Then, sometime about 1978, comic book stores started popping up, and I discovered you could always get the next issue without skipping through them. I looked around and saw Dr. Doom on the cover of this one comic. (Dr. Doom and Sub Mariner I remembered as old allies... REALLY old allies....) And as I looked at the cover, I saw he was toasting the reader with a wine glass, had this superhero lady draped (unconcsious) over his arm.... in fact, he had obviously kicked the butts of everyone else around him, and one was this really cool looking dude with blue skin, three fingers, fangs (bared), and pointy ears....

Yup, it was Xmen 145. (Took me a couple issues to figure out it wasn't skin, but fur...) It was a shame that I started collecting just after the Days of Future Past storyline concluded, but I got in at the very beginning of Dave's second big run, and I loved the art. I was attracted to the cover by Dr. Doom, but stayed with the comic because of Nightcrawler. I read and re-read issue 150 to the point that I committed it to memory and probably devalued the book a bit.... I collected faithfully for many years, but sometime after the Mutant Morlock Massacre in 1989 (where poor Kurt got ripped to shreds and laid comatose for way too long), I stopped collecting Xmen. The continuity went completely downhill, they'd changed the group around, my favorite character wasn't in it anymore....

Then Excalibur came along! Yay! :D I'm lucky enough to have all the issues up to #60, especially that truly goofy Cross Time Caper. But, then, things went sour after that.... I stopped collecting Excalibur about issue 80 or so, when artwork, plotlines, and continuity seemed to take a serious tumble. (I HATE "musical artists!") That, and I was cutting expenses after college, and *something* had to go.... I don't think I made it to the point where Ben Raab came and irritated everyone who read the book, and for that perhaps I'm glad. I basically gave up comics completely, consigned Nighty to my bin of happy childhood memories (of which there are admittedly few, so he kinda sticks out), and moved on to other things.

Then came the year 2000. There was an Xmen movie. I was heartily disappointed not to see NC in it, and I thought it was too short, but it was otherwise well done. Hell, I knew why it was "too short": they had to spend a lot of time just getting everyone else up to speed. Maybe, just maybe, in the sequel they were talking about, we'd see more... And May 2003 came about, and I don't have to tell you what happened then. :shocked It hit such a chord with me that I went and saw it in the theaters six times. I don't do that. I may see a film two or three times, if I've got other people who haven't seen it and I'm taking them. Otherwise, if I like a film that much, I'll buy it on DVD. Still, I went ALONE and saw the film SIX MORE TIMES. Talk about rekindling an interest....

Yes, I've started collecting (Uncanny) Xmen again, but I'm viewing it with an adult's jaded eye, I fear. Some of the stuff I love, but other issues (especially "filler" ones like the last one with murderworld and Viper) leave me grinding my teeth. (Which I REALLY shouldn't be doing, since the glue they used on my teeth for 70s orthodonture is now eating holes in my enamel....) I'm drawn more to the Nightcrawler solo run, and would LOVE :love to see the kind of work Alan did on 1602 in the rest of the Marvel universe.

As for writing, I've been doing that in some fashion since I was able to read and write at all. I did poetry as a little girl, graduated up to Sci Fi stories when I hit 6th grade and up. In 1984, I went to my first Sci Fi convention and was introduced to Japanese Animation, and did some fanfic on that for a while, as plotbunnies tended to come fast and furious on me. In those pre-internet days, I was part of what was once called an APA: Amature Press Association. Everyone made copies of their stories, artwork, whatever (contributions, called "tribs" for short), one of us collated it all, and then sent everyone a single copy of each other's stuff. I got out of that in late college years, as I started working on an actual published comic book. It was a short, local run, but I actually *did* get published as the writer of "Legion". Unfortunately, that was just before the Big Comic Crash of the early 90s. We got out with our shirts intact, but a lot of other little guys didn't. Even now, publishing your own comic can be quite a chore.....

I admit wholeheartedly; it was X2 that brought me back "into the fold" as it were. Alan Cumming's and Singer's portrayal of NC was truly striking for me. No, he wasn't the same "fuzzy, irreverent elf" of the 70s and 80s, but then again, this was a dark situation, and that kind of behavior would have been woefully out of place. The scars added some very complex layers (that I *still* think Singer didn't count on), and having Kurt assault the whitehouse gave him a completely different reason to hide away from everyone in America. The movie added *so* many different dimensions to him, took him places the Comic couldn't go, that I found myself innundated with plot bunnies for the first time in over a decade. :computer
Eagles may soar, but weasels never get sucked into the intake of a jet engine..... :evil
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Post by Rowena »

The movie added *so* many different dimensions to him, took him places the Comic couldn't go, that I found myself innundated with plot bunnies for the first time in over a decade.
And thank goodness for that! :D I love your story "Mentors." I really, really do. I said before that I can't praise it enough, and I can't.

You are lucky that you missed the Raab stuff. I'd thought people were exaggerating when they said how bad those issues were--it was Excalibur, after all, my favorite comic series!--but if anything they were understating the awfulness. *shudder*

Bluefooted, you shouldn't feel disconnected! I truly admire your artistic skill. I'm a mimic at best, but your drawings are original and wonderfully detailed and often filled with humor. I also think it's awesome that you're so into biology! My Dad's a biology teacher, and it is an endlessly fascinating subject! It must be so cool to get to chase lizards in the mountains! :D

Why do people bully other people? It is interesting how just about everyone here has had similar experiences with this kind of thing.

My favorite cartoon growing up was (and is) "Puff the Magic Dragon and the Incredible Mr. Nobody." Has anyone ever seen it? It's all about a gifted little boy who is teased so badly by his peers that he creates an imaginary friend to play with. Puff's job is to teach the little boy to appreciate his talents despite everything, and he does it by taking him on a tour through his own imagination--the Fantaverse. From the moment I first saw it, I identified so strongly with the story! In a way, the journey they took is very like what I do when I write--I leave my room and enter my imagination. I can get pretty lost in there too. When my Mom wants me for something, she often has to call my name five or six times before I snap out of my "thinking mode." :blush

It's really cool to meet everyone like this! I'm super late for dinner now, though, so I've got to go. For those of you who are interested, I'm slightly more than half done with Ch. 17 of "Belasco's Beatrice" and I'm hoping to get more done tomorrow!

See ya later! :D

:bamf
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
~The Doctor, Survival

"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."
~The Doctor, Robot

"If this isn't civilization, why am I standing in a bomb crater?"
~Hawkeye Pierce, M.A.S.H.

Rowena Zahnrei's Stories: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/526713/Rowena_Zahnrei
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Post by Saint Kurt »

This is going to be really short because I want to go to sleep. :)

I was trying to keep up with this thread but I lost track of everything last week because I was in the hospital for my migraines again. I actually had my computer with me but I don't think I ever used it.

So that was a very exciting spring break I had. Now I begin the downward spiral towards final exams. We just had our first class in Gastrointestinal physiology today and we were talking about the "enteric nervous system". Do you know we have a whole separate nervous system in our GI tract so that if something happens to our brain, we can still digest food? Nice.

I haven't opened my Lemony Snicket books in 2 weeks. Thanks guys.
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Post by Rowena »

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say I'm really happy Nightscrawlers is back! It seems every time it goes away I miss it more and more.

Guess what! I got third place in my university's fencing tournament! I'm really proud of that. It was a really intense 15 touch bout between me and a much larger, much more experienced opponent that brought me up from fifth place. I started out behind by 8 points, but it ended really close. Once I'd made up the difference, we kept getting tied until our time for the bout actually ran out! Then a coin was flipped and my opponent got preference, which means if our time ran out again he'd automatically win! But I was the one who scored the winning touch (with 9 seconds to spare!) and it was totally AWESOME!!!!!!!

Just wanted to share.

:clap Nightscrawlers is back! :clap :D

:dance Everybody dance! :dance

*giggle*

:bamf
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
~The Doctor, Survival

"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."
~The Doctor, Robot

"If this isn't civilization, why am I standing in a bomb crater?"
~Hawkeye Pierce, M.A.S.H.

Rowena Zahnrei's Stories: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/526713/Rowena_Zahnrei
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Title: Sometimes the bark isn\'t worse than the bite
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The FV & TTT Social Thread

Post by littlebamf »

*Joins in the celebrations*

I know I haven't posted in FV & TTT for an age, but I do intend to do so, once I get back into the swing of writing. Y'see, I do drama and frankly, whenever anyone says its a nothing subject, my blood boils over or I start rocking gently on the floor and see little dancing monkeys (purple of course). The main reason is the amount of time and effort that is needed for drama. I once stayed at college (that's sixth form college by the way, not uni) until about 10pm at night, having been there since 9am for a show. It wasn't even my show, I was stage managing. The amount of plays we need to read, the research we have to do and lines we have to learn is staggering and they don't evenly spread the workload out over the year!

Enough of that anyway, I like to rant and often do it in little bursts, but I think I was losing my focus on it so I'll give up! I've been writing for most of my life now, usually stories or whatever comes into my head. I'm 19 and I'm going to be heading off to university in late September which while I'm looking forwards to it, it still feels a little odd and oh so life changing...My uni's in Winchester, England and I'm going to be doing a BA joint honours in Drama and Creative writing. Again, most people think that sounds a bit flimsy, but the course content sounds really cool and the writing side especially sounds challenging.

I'm going to take this chance to tell you a bit about Angel, the character who I base most of my fics around. I've had her since I was about 9 and she's suffered a few name changes, changed height, hair and eye colour and even aspects of her powers. I only started being cruel to her when I was about 14 and being bullied, moved around a lot and, well, it was a rough patch of my life. Rather than take a blade to my arms, I took pen to paper and forced out all that I was feeling and channelled it into this dysfunctional teen and that's probably one of the main reasons I can never seem to age her past 16.

One of the things that bugs me is that whenever I'm in a mega writing mood, I don't read much. As a kid I was a wizz at reading and I read Harry Potter 4 in one night - I kid thee not! Now, I struggle to read a book in a week unless it seriously grabs my imagination. Maybe I'm jaded or maybe I just suffer from a lack of time....
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Post by Rowena »

I love theater. A few of my favorite plays are "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds," "Twelve Angry Men," "Man of La Mancha," "Cyrano De Bergerac," and "The Crucible." You know, I just finished with a stage combat class that was really awesome. For my final exam, I got to help work out a rapier/daggar scene for Romeo and Juliet and I got cast as Romeo! I had to slay Tybalt (who was also a girl. :D ) It was a lot of fun, and there was only one short paper, but even though some people scoffed that it wasn't a "real" class, I viewed it as being just as important and legitimate as any of my history and political science classes.

No subject that requires you to use your intellect and your imagination can be termed a "nothing subject". Not in my opinion, anyway. Writing is hard, and so is acting and memorizing lines. Theater is art, and art is far more important--even vital--than most people tend to give it credit for. It's a unique and special medium that can melt the vast complexity of the world down into something entertaining that everyone can relate to and learn from. It brings difficult questions and painful themes to vibrant life, where they can't be easily ignored or swept under the carpet. Theater is, in short, awesome and so are movies. :D

Many of the best writers do what you did in creating your character and pour their own experiences and emotions into their creations. That's how great authors like George Orwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, and so many, many others have enriched our culture. Even more "popular" writers like Isaac Asimov and Terry Prachett and P.G. Woodhouse have had immesurable influence. To me, that's proof that creative writing--at any level!--is anything but "flimsy." It's fun, it's creative, it's very challenging, and it's a completely legitimate and important college major. Just felt I had to get that out there because I've experienced those looks people tend to shoot at people who take theater classes and it is truly annoying.

About the reading...it's probably lack of time. I often have the same problem, and I'm a very fast reader. (I read "Harry Potter 4" in one night too. Same with "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Don Quixote," and "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith." Gosh, I'm a nerd.)
"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
~The Doctor, Survival

"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."
~The Doctor, Robot

"If this isn't civilization, why am I standing in a bomb crater?"
~Hawkeye Pierce, M.A.S.H.

Rowena Zahnrei's Stories: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/526713/Rowena_Zahnrei
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Post by littlebamf »

Heck I'm a nerd too, and proud!!

I ofte use similar arguments when explaining what I do to other people. It's a shame that not everyone can appreciate the time actors, writers, artists etc put into their work or the fact it can be quite draining - I leave my LAMDA Silver Medal acting rehearsals on all fours, having just gone through being Joan of Arc, Electra (as in Greek myth of course!) and a boisterous schoolgirl. It's tiring, but thats good as that means you're doing it right!!

Those are some choice plays you've listed ^_^ And by coincidence, I too have recently had a stage combat class on Friday - we've finished all our work with one of our tecahers, so on our Friday lesson, he's now doing stage combat with us and this week it's going to be basic sword work - not only am I doing what I want a career in, its so helpful for my writing, as I usually find a way to fit a sword in my stories!!
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Post by Saint Kurt »

I just wanted to post and say Hi to everyone and that I'm glad to see you all back. I've spent more time "under Nightscrawlers" than actually at Nightscrawlers if you know I mean. I've been working to make the site more stable for less outtages like the one we had before so I've been lurking in the background a lot this week. A lot of times I've been logged in but I was in the "guts" working on the code so it was like I was here, but I wasn't.

I'm looking forward to sharing some creativity. I couldn't write at all for probably the last two months of school as things got very busy. It's hard to have any kind of life when you're in professional school. I saw LittleBamf's comment about one day staying at school from 9am to 10pm and started laughing; not to belittle the effort she puts in, but because that would have been a short day for me! Often I am still in the vet school building and barn complex well after midnight having arrived there at at 8am the morning before. It's a lot of work, but I'm committed to it. That doesn't mean I didn't welcome the summer break though.

Still, even with the crazy hours and hard work I had a few exciting things. The biggest was being Baptized and Confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church. I didn't talk about that at all while I was going through it (though I must have seemed awfully knowledgeable about Catholicism for a Jew :) ) and I wasn't even sure I was going to go through the Baptism at the end. I didn't like the idea of "converting" because it made it sound like I was going to stop believing in one thing and start believing another and that didn't feel like what I was doing. Finally I told my Priest about it and he said that maybe I "have always been Catholic and will always be Jewish" no amount of water or oil will change that.

So that was kind of a weird thing for someone to say and I had to think about it for a long time. Finally I said "yes" and now I'm really positive I did the right thing.

I've been fencing when time allows. (Congratuations on your win Rowena! Watchout it gets addictive. :)) I really love it. I try to go three times a week now that summer is here.

Plus I'm really excited to be working on the Even Angels have Scars sequel. My first order of business (after this note or course) is going to be to update that thread with some answers to the comments as well as new stuff. Since I couldn't be writing I keep working on the outline, tightening up the plot so I hope this next one will make Angels some dull.

Well, that's it for me. I'm really glad to be back everyone.
-e
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Post by CurlyyHairGirl »

Well, I oughta put somethin' in.

I've been totally jazzed since Zam got the site back up, and I must admit that no amount of any medication can bring me down about now, especially since I have a little more extra time,(well, for the next couple days).

I haven't been around the forum alot before the recent crash for reasons I already expressed, and will be on it less again, but it's still nice to know that it's here.

As for my creativity, I feel bad, I haven't updated my own site in lforecver despite my recent urges to draw till all my pencils are stubs. I feel bad because none of them have anything remotely to do with NC. LOL.

During that long ''blank''period, I watched alot of alien related movies on top of reading alot of sci-fi books, on top of working on endless amounts of homework, massive projects, and cramming for the upcoming finals. They say junior year is the one colleges look at most...good thing for public colleges.:p soooo, in between all this stuff, I draw or visit my grandpa and enjoy these last months with him.

Because of my sci-fi junkie-ness, I find myself drawing alot of alien based stuff, as well as writing stories that just seem to pop into my head...though it's a real pain because I work on a beginning, think of a middle and where I want it to end, but end up filling in some of the balnk, changing the beginning, adding on to the end, finnishing the middle, revising it and so on.

Dieu, I'm tired, the screen looks all fuzzy, and I have a headache. I need caffein. And I probably made NO sense in my ramblings.

Anyway...The only piece of art that has been recently been put up online, is not on my site, I'm having problems with it right now, but Darick was kind enough to put it up on his site.

I wanted to say that I am totally sapped of energy. For some reason, reading Jack London and watching the last episode of the season for Gilmore girls has sucked me dry. Does this happen to anybody else?

Beside's that, The Harry Potter books made me read hecka fast as well (I see a pattern here, folks. It's a conspiracy:D)But I tend to try to read slow so that I can get everything I can out of a story, especially the ones here.
You guy's spark my imagination and give me the fuel that a Kirkland brand Chiken Bake couldn't.

Gosh, nothing makes sense right now:LOLI can hardly see the screen, sorry for misspellings *snort* I need Clear Eyes.

"for dry, red eyes. Use Clear eyes."

I really happy to be back though I probably sond like a rambling idiot with this post. 94% true...blue..two...chew..crap Iv'e been doing that alot.

Soon I'll be home free, 3 more weeks of school, then I gotta get a job. Hopefully a cool one.

I too would like to throw congrads to Rowena on her awesom win. I don't fence, so I envy you. I just play with the big kitchen knives:engarde (watchout!)I think that it's a really cool sport, and very graceful. Me, I could never do that, I'm a softball/rugby/ice Hockey/soccer/ultimate dodgeball/tackle football/physical pain/hand to hand kind of sports person. I was so not built with grace.:LOL
originally posted by Zamweasel[i/]
Finally I told my Priest about it and he said that maybe I "have always been Catholic and will always be Jewish" no amount of water or oil will change that.

That's really cool. I have a friend who's mom was R. Catholic and her Dad Jewish, and so she grew up under both religions. I get confused enough with one, butv she went to CCD with me while also going for lessons at her temple. I always admired her for that.


That's it. I gotta go now.

I love you all:love:kiss


~EMO~:bamf
one name: Bruce Campbell
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Post by Arcane-angel »

Hi, I'm 16, I Love Kurt :) and I'm new here. Well as a member but I've been browsing this place for quite sometime. Anyways the reason i never really joined was because of how big this place was. I guess it kinda intimidated me. but i finally got the guts to join. But then no one replyed to the introductions thread and I got scared again that no one would talk to so I wandered a bit until I found this thread! I thought. well....maybe I can get started here and work my way to the rest the boards. So I did.

The first thing I put up was a doll of Kurt my best friend made for me. I think its a work of art and i love her to death for making it for me. Now I plan on putting my Evolution story up soon. I've been editing it like mad.

I love to draw and write they're two of my most favorite things to do. I hope to one day be in the credits of an x-men comic book. Most likely as an artist. I hope anyways.

I love humor in any way. Just as I love drama. so most of my stories will be a bit of both. Humor is my favorite because I love to make people laugh I figure theres enough sadness in the world. Also I write mostly short stories because of my horrible attention span. But it's cool. I like short stories. You don't have to ever worry about an author never finishing thier story.

Everyone talks about their fears on here so I guess I'll say mine: Mine is that I'll get ignored because I'm a newbie. or because of a post I made that wasn't so good. I know how people go by first impressions.

Actually this fear drove me from a board before. I put up something that didn't go over well. and i was to scared to put anything else up. I hope I don't do that again. :X

I love Kurt because he doesn't let others get him down. He's had to deal with mobs riots and many other unpleasent incounters but he always keeps a smile on his face.

that and he's got a tail :love

well thats all for now. if you guys want i can put up a bit more about me.
"I've got a dungeon masters guide
I've gotta twelve sided dice
I've got kitty pryde
and nightcrawler too
waiting there for me
yes I do"
~"In the garage" Weezer
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