kageygirl | Chronology, like correlation, does not necessarily indicate causality.

Or, as I keep trying to tell myself, it's not my damn fault. Yet I still feel responsible and guilty. How stupid is that?

I've been debating with myself whether to post anything about the whole stupid p_g thing. On the one hand, I just want it all to go AWAY. On the other hand, I kind of want to get it out of my system, and isn't that what lj is for?

I wrote a snippet, set after the Atlantis ep "Home". At 2am. In an email to a friend, because she was testing her new address, and I was just screwing around. Then I went to bed.

Woke up, checked email, it had made her chuckle and she encouraged me to post it to p_g. So I did. And then Badness Ensued. ::facepalms::

It was the headers, wasn't it? That's where I went wrong. I put headers on it, and that somehow made it look like something worth having a convulsive shitfit over.

See, this kinda crap? Is why I essentially fell out of fandom for 6 months, and hadn't posted anything for almost a year. Big, heartfelt sigh.

Random notes about the whole thing:

-There's a world of difference between constructive criticism and, uh, destructive criticism. I know we live in a televisionwithoutpity kind of world, but "trying to help" and "trying to score points" are not the same thing.

-I, in fact, like constructive criticism. When it's actually, you know... But even actual helpful concrit is easier to take in private, because no one likes to be told in front of a room full of people that their fly is down.

-Did I mention it was a fucking snippet? Good for me.

I think there's a difference between fanfic written in the heat of squee!, fanfic written with care and time, and profic. The first is like cotton candy--share it with people, it amuses, and then it's all gone. Some people only write cotton candy, and you know what? It's all good. The second involves beta readers and all, and it's still all good. The third, profic? For me, it's a completely different animal. Possibly not even from the same planet. Because why I write fanfic and why I write profic are two utterly separate urges that just happen to share the same toolbox. I'm not putting out remotely the same product, nor would I try to.

For me, fanfic is for fun. Read for fun, write for fun. Take a break from the nonfun things in life. If I want to have fun laboring over a fic, that's cool. But it should also be cool if I just want to share a moment of squee! with like-minded folks.

OK, probably done preaching. Now go, and be excellent to each other.

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::hugs::

You know, I got so annoyed that I unsubbed before I had a chance to tell you how sweet the snippet was, and how much I enjoyed it. And how thrilled I was that you were writing Atlantis fic! I'm so sorry it became something unfun. That really sucks.

fanfic written in the heat of squee!

LOL, I love it. Can we call it SqueeFic? That's one reason why I enjoy LJ so much. I can write a spur of the moment snippet and post it, unbeta'd, and folks pretty much take it for what it is--a squee moment. It's not meant to be a work of art.

May we all have many sqee moments in our future.

Aw, thanks, Grrrl! I am firmly gripped by my Shiny New Obsession, so this tiny little setback will not drive me back into lurkdom. Pretty, snarky boys! Life be good.

Can we call it SqueeFic?

Oh, I think we must, now. It's such wonderfully descriptive shorthand. Squee for squee!

Very pretty snarky boys! I've fallen hopelessly in love with McKay. And I'm convinced that Sheppard has, too. (such a pretty boy) Glad you are leaving lurkerdom behind for them. *g*

It's so true! I keep waiting for Weir/Beckett/Grodin to tell them to take the flirting elsewhere. "We've got an entire abandoned city here--surely you can find a room somewhere?"

honey this so totally was not your fault. It could just as easily have been something of mine or some random person none of us has ever heard of before who happened to post and that shmuck decided to eviscerate in public because he's a shmuck. Bad luck for him he picked on someone who 1) is a great writer and b) has friends who weren't going to let him get away with that crap.

yay for squeefic! That's all I write these days. Heat of the moment snippets. Some of 'em don't work so good. But I'm not aiming at creating Faust here. If it amuses me for a few minutes, that's enough.

Also, why is there a barcode scanner on your desk?

I do, in fact, have really great friends. You guys totally bring the fun.

Also, why is there a barcode scanner on your desk?

All part of the glamorous lifestyle of the "Library Assistant IV (Cataloging)." The damn thing's motion-activated, so it switches on every time I go near the mouse. I'll probably have cancer of the fingers in 20 years, but since we'll all be communicating with our computers through direct neural interfaces at that point, it'll be fine. *g*

I feel that "squeefic" should be listed as a genre: "Category: Slash squeefic."

See, when I post something unbeta'd, it's a squeefic, something throwaway, something just fun for all, something that I didn't spend time on and so I don't want you to waste yours by treating it like...um...something serious. Because it's not. But if a beta is listed, then it's serious, man, and I spent some time on it. Admittedly, I sometimes don't beta fics that I think

thegrrrl2002 will like, just so she has that moment of "Woo!" But they are still not serious, because she goes "Woo! Now fix this" in her constructive criticism (which is both those things).

The only point I got out of the p_g debacle that was worth anything, in terms of criticism, is that the author has no say in what happens to her fic once it's posted. Sure! I agree with this. But this does not mean that you put it out there and people are welcome to trash it, merely because trashing is, apparently, a valid form of response.

No. What this actually means is, once the fic is out there, things such as "authorial intent" mean nothing, and interpretation is permitted free rein--which is why we now analyze, say, Shakespeare in terms of feminism, when all that would be foreign to the Bard himself and is absolutely not what he intended ("Kate as a protofeminist? What's a protofeminist?").

I'm sorry this happened to you, and I think the response that ensued was completely out of line. The fact that some people thought the flame was a valid form of "constructive criticism" scared me. These people live in a reality that is Not Mine, but then again--Minnesota Nice, right?

And let me also say this: you know what I do for a living. If I wrote "feedback" like what I saw to the authors whose work I process, I would be fired in a heartbeat. There is absolutely no forum in professional life where this kind of discourse would be tolerated, be it as an editor or a writing workshopper.

Now. Ahem. Feel free to write more squeeage. Go on now!

So is WooFic a subcategory? Written specificially to make me go "Woo!"? Of course, I do that will all your fics. But certainly some more than others.

I think it's so sweet you write sweet Woofic for me.

Woofic is, indeed, a special genre. I'm not the first to write in it, of course--it's simply a genre when one writes a particular fic with a particular person's response in mind.

Woo!

I do believe this Daniel icon is gakked from you. Woo!

See? I still agree with you in all things. (Well, my Woofic tends to be for Leah, but aside from that.)

Now. Ahem. Feel free to write more squeeage. Go on now!

Yes, Mistress!

Maybe we're at the point where snippets only get posted in journals, which is sad for the people who don't hang out on lj.

The so-called feedback was very mock-worthy though. I mean really, he wrote in teenyspeak and told you to italicize thoughts. How pathetic is that? What does it say that one of my forms of amusement currently is mocking bad public 'feedback'.

I thought the snippet was great; Sheppard and McKay seemed very in character to me. It was yours and Kylie's short stories that I mentioned to Sarah the other day that she needs to read-- whenever it is that she gets her internet access back at home.

Go away Ivan, go away, go away, go away.

Maybe we're at the point where snippets only get posted in journals, which is sad for the people who don't hang out on lj.

Nah, I don't think so, because so few people are on LJ. It seems like all the people who are anyone are blogging, but in reality, it's a very small percentage.

Also, it seems to me that the snippets are the very things that should be getting FB, because the author may turn them into a proper, lengthy fic, if the response is good and if people give advice about where they think it ought to go. It could turn into a really fun way to preview/create a story.

And...the Atlantis fic to date is really not all that great, it's true. I don't see so much of the slashy subtext but am willing to wait.

::sits and waits expectantly::

Maybe we're at the point where snippets only get posted in journals, which is sad for the people who don't hang out on lj.

Which is kind of the impression I have, too, and I find it sad, too, because I like to have big clearinghouses. I prefer to avoid the heartbreak of "oh, god, where the HELL did I find that again?"

Go away Ivan, go away, go away, go away.

Amen. I'm tired of worrying about all you guys down there. *g* I've still got pretty freaked-out memories of Andrew, and the weather needs to stop smacking people around!

Then again, oddly apropos for "The Storm" airing on Friday... hmmm.

Then again, oddly apropos for "The Storm" airing on Friday... hmmm.

I being the oblivious spoiler disliker that I am didn't find out the title of the episode until last week. I can't help it, I find it funny as hell. Of course some of us will be critiquing their storm preparations. *g*

So glad Ivan's moved west because we were so fucked if it came through here.

Chronology, like correlation, does not necessarily indicate causality.

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