Bullet List of Awesome

[thedeadlyhook]

Caffeine is a WONDERFUL THING. God, I love mornings. The whole day ahead of you, and with a nice hot mocha in the tummy, energy to burn. Neurons sparking. Ahh.

Doesn't it just make you wonder about the discovery of coffee beans and tea leaves, and how long it must've taken for humans to figure out the right dose? Primitive drug experimentation - stick a plant in your mouth, and find out what happens. Science, people!

Anyway. That thing, that I said above, about sparking neurons. *g*

I haven't posted in yonks, so I have a whole list of backed-up notes and recs and other business - in the interests of making things manageable, I'll just quickly rip through the list:

New Community
wip_out, dedicated to helping fanfic writers finish their languishing WIPs. It's the brainchild of the wonderful st_salieri, who asked me to be her co-moderator on the comm. Take a look, share your own to-do list, or just listen in as we try to formulate some working tips and tricks. C'mon, it'll be fun! Like a New Year's resolution-y thing.

Joooiiin ussssss...

Slightly Related to Above, As In, Kind of Like Writing Tips
part 1 and part 2 of things learned about writing from RPG campaigns, or role-playing games, and all of it so true. You know your story's on bad footing when the RPG test - how would a group of players react to this scenario? - doesn't pass muster, i.e, if you send people into a dark dungeon, you'd better have a good reason why nobody thinks to check for traps. (They're drunk and/or distracted is good for one use; after that, you're on your own.)

Another one from metafandom, an answer to the eternal question of what is 'canon' to you? The discussion mostly boils down to two essential topics: a) what you consider official, and, b) having made that determination, how constrained by it you feel, for fannish purposes. Since both are governed by personal taste, the end-of-the-day consensus for pretty much any fandom is what the most people accept as true... which is rather nicely populist, come to think of it, with the creator (and critics) as the "elite." Heh!

I ran across this one when I absolutely had no time to engage in the discussion but I'd bookmarked it as neato-keeno: ludditerobot's post about Blade Runner and Deckard's possible Replicant status. I'm impressed by the analysis, especially on the name consistencies.

Fic Recs
quinara's fic Resolution. It's a Buffy and Xander friendship fic written in response to the comics, and it really hits the spot for me - yes, this is the sort of thing I wanted to see. Sigh.

This may seem like a non-sequitor, but some time ago, I did a sort of study on the styles of the various BtVS writers. By which I mean, I read scripts and watched runs of episodes by a single writer to see if I could detect their signature tics and preferences - what makes a David Fury script different from a Douglas Petrie, etc. And the conclusion I came to on Joss, if you're curious, is that he tends to write nearly all his big character moments in Shakespearean-esque soliloquies, the character speaking to the audience directly (or to another character in a way that might as well be). Which, if you're trying for that Hamlet-like focus on a single character's POV (think "The Body" or "Conversations With Dead People"), it's great; for group comprehension, not always so much, especially if I'm not completely sure who the story's really supposed to be about. (As in the last issue, which I read because I'm a bit of a Cliff Richards fan from back in the day, when he was the regular artist on the Buffy comics - judging from the who-made-the-speeches, that story was really about Willow.) Think about the musical, too - even in the group songs, they characters are all singing alone, having their own solo moments. There's a lot of small details that the reader/viewer can work to stitch together as a whole, but overall? Characterization through interaction is not really his bag.

Which makes for an interesting contrast to Jane Espensen, especially, who loads all of her heavy lifting into character dialogues. In her episodes, you learn everything from the way individuals interact.

This explains a lot to me about why I'm not getting what I need out of the comic. I think I'm much more of the Espensen school - I need the give-and-take.

Riding the Clutch by only_passenger. Hot, steamy, angsty, raw NC-17 Spike/Buffy. What, you need another reason to click? Really, really good. Also, if you're not following her story In All the World, you're missing out. It's a hardcore AU which makes Buffy's Sunnydale existence seem a bit like a children's story, but captures the essence of Spike/Buffy all the same. Disturbing, violent, erotic, and sublime. Go read.

Just For Fun
Interested in a pet duck? Well, y'know there's a website for that. Of course. There's also Goats.com. Have I mentioned Toys's recent goat obsession? Don't be surprised if I pipe up someday with the announcement that we'll be moving to the country to open a goat farm.

And finally, Wagner's Ring Cycle of Operas Summarized in Easy Fanspeak. Surprisingly incest-friendly!

(I post using my Doctor Block icon from Grindhouse in honor of having finally acquired the DVD from the used collection of our local King of Video Rental Stores, Le Video. Yay for being able to watch Planet Terror any time I want!)