[fileg]

--- Oh my! And here I thought you were that poetry-writing, word-wielding wit married to the guy who wrote the hilarious cartoon and very sharp story about Elves in Rivendell.... ---

Apparently I am that cranky old woman who can't shut up, as well.


---Fileg, thank you for sharing your stories here. I can't believe you haven't been writing for ages. Shunt as well! ---

Well, journaling, but no fiction before April. Breathe was my first piece of prose. Jim on the other hand truly is just demented and brilliant. (what can I say) and I hope he will give us more episodes of "Cubicles of Valinor" http://gryphonsmith.com/fileg/shunt/maiabert.html


I appreciate the chance to be here and share words and work. It is why I do this. Meeting people like Levade and Nancy has been the bonus.

Stop reading this silly thread and go read Nancy's beautiful new story Leaves On The Wind

Levade - you are on my list. I see you have a story here and we have Gondolin as a common interest!

Robbie, thanks for helping with the visuals. I appreciate the time and your kindness both.

Why does your email say "thinks Sean Bean has a big nose?" He does, but he has... other attributes as well. ( my vision isn't that bad!) And....well, I like a big nose. Strength, and all that. Yeah.

[Ariel]

[Viv]

[Scribe]

[fileg]

I have been here for awhile, but I wan't sure how my very "non-romantic" stuff would play. Last night I decided to dump some new things in. How does one make that nice underlined indent effect??

Over at HASA in my poetry forum, I organized a project to write verses (everyone picked a movie or play) to follow the lead in

I sing the praises of Sean Bean
And all the places I have seen
His manly bottom on the screen ....

we got about thirty verses, including a sharpe villanelle and a lovely haiku. I will ask the gang if I can share some of them

Still happy to have me showing poetry here??? LOL!!!

[NancyBrooke]

[fileg]

[dolarabee]

[Scribe]

[TheEspressoAddict]

Someone recently pointed me to this discussion. I won't rehash issues that Khazar has already ably answered, but as it was my call to include Isabeau's 'Captain My Captain', perhaps I can just briefly clarify the situation here.

The awards rules made a distinction between WiPs and ongoing serials, the main difference being that the parts of an ongoing serial could be read as independent stories, while the chapters of a WiP could not. (More details are available in the FAQ on the awards website, http://www.viragene.com/tolkien). Because CMC is an episodic story, I considered that it fell under the definition of ongoing serial, and thus was eligible for consideration. The story also received multiple independent nominations and was absolutely relevant to the particular category in which it was included (Best Characterisation -- Original Character). Hope this helps!

If people here are interested in participating in organising next year's awards, including discussing changes to the rules/system &c, then there's a Yahoo discussion group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LotR-FF-awards/
LotR-FF-awards-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

which people are very welcome to join.

Cheers,
Tavia

[Gaslight]

OK, now I can relate to others' experiences about the seeming arbitrariness or just plain humanity of the approval process at HASA (in other words, that people are reading these things and not impartial robots). As an aside, if robotic grammarians/technically rigid authors were approving the all submissions, I don't think anything would be approved.

The fic I submitted (A Destined Reckoning) was approved, by a margin of 6 to 3. 2 who declined it said "Undistinguished writing" and 3 approved with "strong writing/good style"! Perhaps it is simply a matter of luck who you get to read your story. Oh well, when such opposites are said about the same thing, I don't think the message could be clearer that it's all a matter of opinion and that it's not personal or, indeed, anything to be taken seriously. Perhaps I don't use metaphors and similes as other authors do -- I write what I see and my thesaurus and dictionary are never far from my hand. Eh, if a few people didn't like it, there are others who did. And if it is only "fine for a Boromir-centric archive, however to my mind, it doesn't meet the stringent standards here," well, then it's to Boromir-centric archives I go! There's a home for everyone on the web.

[Ariel]

In response to Gaslight -

Well, there is also some validity to the profiling of fics at HASA...

I've submitted quite a few stories, both my own and the writing of others, and I’ve gotten a feel for the kind of thing that is usually accepted there. Quality is a big factor, true, but there are types of stories that I have noticed had better be knock your socks off professionally brilliant or you might as well not bother submitting it.

Likewise, there are some genre’s that it seems will be approved no matter what the quality of the fic is.

I’ll buy that this probably reflects a pretty much fandom wide bias – and there is really nothing you can do about that – but I guess what I would want to try to do, if it were my archive – is to try and sample widely from all genres. When I was submitting and reviewing, I tried to favor daring, different works – and was a lot harder on the ‘same old, same old’ stories. LOL… It was pretty funny – for a long while I could almost guarantee which way a fic would fall – opposite the way I voted! :p No matter…

The thing is, over time, I suspect the reviewer pool is going to distill out… people who are consistently turned down, or whose votes are consistently at odds with the final results will probably drop out (unless they just like to make trouble!) The reviewer pool, as well as the membership itself, might end up consisting of just like-minded, like-favored people – and anyone who is different is going to be less inclined to break in. That may be what the majority of their membership wants – but I don’t know…

Ariel

[Gaslight]

Ariel,

Oh, I really don't care about the dynamics of the approval process. In fact, I think you lost me. No matter. I really have no point in this post anyway.

My fic made it in, sure, but even if it hadn't I doubt I'd be in the dumps about it because it is, in the end, JUST an archive among many and JUST people on the other end, not folks you need to impress. You're not guaranteed of more feedback there than elsewhere, there's no prizes or shiny toys given to fics who are let in through the door, etc. It's not a status symbol unless you want it to be one (and in that way it's like SUVs). All I was saying is that the reviewers are people who may not have the same likes as you, the author, and rejection may seem arbitrary. And from what I understand you to mean, reviewers may decide they've seen one too many movieverse fics, or a couple inconsistencies is basis for dismissal. Invisible quotas at work or something. Ack, I don't want to have to second guess people and write to suit some undisclosed parameters. I had to do that too much in college. That's why I'm glad I'm out of that ratrace.

I guess the point I was trying to make was that I can understand the seeming arbitrary nature from a submitter's viewpoint, having submitted something and gotten both negative and positive comments. I hadn't been able to relate to the comments made here before. I doubt I'll submit again, however. It's just too long a process, it involves a lot of work on not only my part but theirs. And ff.net has been very good to me, so I'll stick with what I'm currently archived at and not have to remember where else I have my stuff. Plus by not "worrying" about HASA and what they like and don't like, and so on, I'll just write what suits me and put it in places that are less "stringent." I've discovered that even "canon" means different things to different people. HASA's standard is by no means the final word on it since there are canon-bending fics there.

[miriel361]

The main problem with HASA I think was that it was too big (probably still is) and there was little opportunity to find positive support for your writing... and believe me there is always something nice to say about someone's writing ... even if it is simply the courage to put pen to paper and write continuously for 5 pages. This is no longer a skill you can take for granted in schools.

At the end of the day, I think that HASA, like Open Scrolls, is dependent upon its people. It's the people who make the place and at HASA, it is people who choose what goes into the archive. Now I ask you - do we always like to read the same stuff? There are times when I find a certain book boring and uninteresting, a month later I may pick it up again and find it truely invigorating, inspiring and the best thing since bread and butter. So I am sure that sometimes good stuff is lost to the archive. On the other hand, the archive has some amazingly good stories in it, and like here, i always find something good to read.

I personally never submitted my 'baby' to HASA because I knew it wouldn't fit in there, but it is the story I wanted to write and I wrote it anyway. HASA mail list helped me alot when I had questions about elves, and especially on elf mortality. Hey those people know their Tolkien and have extrapolated that knowledge onto logical ends.

So if anyone is reading this from HASA - thanks for your help, and thanks to my friends who encouraged me to continue writing when I was frustrated and believed myself to be writing rubbish.

Miriel