Categotry Archives: FanLit
FanLit Forever Due
We interrupt this turkey count down to remind everyone that tomorrow is the least day in which to submit something for the first ever FanLit Forever challenge. Can you do it? . Alice
It Isn't Fun Unless It's Fair, Reprise
Why is it so important that a writing contest be squeaky clean in the way it’s run? Why must the efforts to prevent cheating be loudly proclaimed? Because writers as a group are unusually obsessive. We need to know that whatever rank our piece landed at has some legitimacy. Knowing that my first effort achieved spot 205 out of 223 entries because it sucked may be hard to take, but to think it ended up there because some b*tch with […]
It's Alive!!
I can not tell you how thrilled I am with the warm reception the FanLit Forever site has received. So many people have transferred over from Yahoo, and so quickly! The boards I thought would work well are jumping. Thanks to ChrisJournal the place looks great. Plenty of people have stepped up to the plate to help out. It feels like this idea I had took on a life of it’s own. Good. I can’t wait to see how the […]
Announcing FanLit Forever – The Writing Game
We did it! With a lot of help from ChrisJournal and a little from Krardon we created a web-based board in which to hold our version of Avon’s contest. The board is great, if I do say so myself. It isn’t simply a place to post a submission or bits of conversation like Yahoo. It has places in which to discuss the publishing industry, places in which to post your personal work in progress, places for every aspect of the […]
Confession Time
I offered anyone who I knew to be of legal age a scene that continues my entry Signed and Sealed from the point where Damien blows out the candle. I actually got a request for it! Now for the confession. You guessed it, I haven’t written the scene yet. I have it mostly done, but still need a few parts. In motion. *blush*. To anyone who wanted to see it I will get it to you as soon as I […]
FanLit Withdrawal
I had a blog titled “Patience the Wimp” and another titled “The Five Star Fairies”. While writing my entries, then trying to support them I was too busy to finish either blog. Now that we are down to the final ten those topics seem passe. Just as well. I am so far behind in everything. My crit group really caught fire while I wasn’t looking and my CP – Hi May – has been waiting forever for the next installment […]
Needs More Conflict.
I find myself putting this in the comment line a fair amount this round. I can just hear the authors who receive it sputtering about how it’s the final chapter, already. Why can’t they just tie up a few loose ends and be done with it! Boy, I feel your pain. I really do. And I was tempted to simply go through the laundry list of issues that needed to be dealt with to make the story work, but I […]
It Aint Fun If It Aint Fair
Did I know what I was getting into when I first singed up? Not entirely. I could see the conflict of interest, but didn’t realize it would be as much of a problem as it proved. And I trusted FanLit to take responsibility for enforcing their own rules. That would have made a huge difference in the playing experience. If I hadn’t already realized it was just a publicity stunt, plenty of people I tried to invite in the first […]
My Dream FanLit
Clearly I’m addicted. But that doesn’t mean I can’t see ways to improve FanLit. The way I see it, the biggest problem with FanLit is human nature, and the fact the system doesn’t compensate for it. The voting pool has become what Garrett Hardin called “the commons”. On one hand we see noble people proving Hardin wrong by rising above it. But more often we see everyone suffering from .5 bandits, 0 bombers, and meaningless 5’s. This is because we […]
Dirty Rotten Cheaters
Ok, this is just eating me up alive. It kills me to know that at least two of the people I have been hanging out with on the FanLit boards are stabbing me in the back with their sock puppet accounts. If any of them is reading this blog I have but one thing to say to you. Damn you! May you join me in this purgatory where so much that was once bright and beautiful becomes meaningless. May your […]
Step 1: Admit You Have A Problem.
I think the only thing that could keep me from entering again will be the ending of the contest. This in spite of knowing I can’t win, that the game is rigged, that cheaters run rampant, and that I really do have better things to do. I started to write a parody, then decided not to finish when I realized how many bridges it would have burned. I pumped out an entry with no soul and am watching it sink […]
12 Step Program for FanLitters.
Obviously we need it. Why not set it up here? I’ll go first. I’m Alice Audrey, and I am addicted to FanLit. My last post on the FanLit board was a couple of minutes ago, and I fear the next will be right after I post here. I know the addiction has had a terrible impact on my life, from the introduction of Pizza and TV Dinners into my children’s diets to the complete hault of work on my WIP. […]
What do I want in a winning chapter?
This was a question asked on the Chapter 4 forum. Why not answer it? First and foremost I look for a good read. Unluckily, I’ve become extraordinarily picky in the last few years. For me a good read is one that draws me into a satisfying story in spite of my inclination to notice any and every possible flaw from narrative intrusion to poor word choice. Anything that can get me past the reader’s barrier will work for darn near anyone. […]
Critique for FanLit Entries
An awful lot of the time I wish I could use critiquer’s shorthand on the entry comments. It would be so much easier to say “white room syndrome” or “talking heads” or “headhopping”. Especially when you have so few characters in which to say it. For those of you – Hi Raven! – not on FanLit, I’m not talking the kind of characters who live and breath in my head. I’m talking about individual letters and numbers. We have a […]
Tough Crowd
Either everyone has gotten a lot pickier, of my work has slid into suckiness. I’ll have you notice that I did NOT take the suck pledge because I don’t want to do anything that might even remotely cause me to write below my ability, be it ever so humble. I can too be humble! Sometimes. It looks like this round is going to have to be one of those times. No “wow”s for Alice today. Humble pie, anyone? Alice
