157 emails, naked-scanning and Pros and Pros and Pros...
Monday, 1 February 2010 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
byslantedlight157 emails in my inbox are just way too many and I so need to tidy up... I'm sorry if anyone's got lost in there, do kick me if I haven't replied to something and I should have... (well, I should have replied to all of them by now, but...) I'm sorry!
And I see the make-you-naked scanners at Heathrow were in the news this morning, as I glanced at Landlady's tv whilst making my coffee... I shouldn't be surprised that when they showed an example of a woman in the scanner it was from head to kneecaps, and her arms were held up and stretched out and you could see all her shapes clearly - and when they showed an example of a man in the scanner it cut him off at the waist... They did later show a rear view which included a bottom, but it could in many ways have been either male or female... I mean, wtf - it's 2010, do they think we might not realise what's there? And really, when you think about it, isn't it more damaging to portray men as crotchless? *g*
Speaking of men with crotches (*g*) - I have to admit to watching Commando Leopard with something akin to dread last night, cos I knew I'd watched it a year or so ago, and I thought I'd posted about it somewhere, so I was hoping to get out of it, in a way... *g* And naturally on the first Sunday for ages that I could do NPPW, it wasn't MS in Macbeth, which I was looking forward to rewatching for the first time since I was in Year 12, or something I like (yeay Rhodes coming up!), but one of the jungle movies... But that said - I still stayed up way too late writing my commentary, and had fun doing the screencaps, and thoroughly enjoyed it all really, so... And I don't remember noticing Curasco and the Priest last time either, cos I'm not at all a slash-goggles-girl - and to be honest it may be that I'm more aware of the possibility of LC-slash than anything else, so... *g* But yeah, fun...
...and I started getting all plotty with it then, when I went to bed, wondering about story ideas for the Big Bang thingie - except that instead I ended up with a plot for the new Dialj challenge, Discovered in Chinese New Year (that should have a the really, shouldn't it..! Also - gargh, why is this computer not showing the banner properly, when my computer did! Why's it cutting our Doyle in half? Waaaah! Is it doing that for anyone else?) I have a strange feeling that there's not going to be alot of interest in Dialj challenges for a while, which would be a bugger, cos there's a guest challenger waiting for next month, but... We'll see - you never know... Anyway - I even had to jump out of bed to write plot down, which was kind of a good thing, even if it was Very Very Late and I Should Have Been In Bed... *g*
Aaaand... okay, I've been writing this all day, and now it's getting on for just two hours left before hometime - wheeee! *g*
Long stories - what do you count as a long story...? *g* The Pros Big Bang says 12,500 words and over at Pros-Lit there was a big hurrah for such long stories, but the ProsLit Long Story List is for stories over 50,000 words (aka "novels" by some definitions). Hmmn - stories I think of as "long" (rather than novels), picked at random:
- November by Sebastian (22,708)
- Suitable Gravity by DVS (49,452)
- Legacy of Tempation by Ellis Ward (100,732)
- Scoring A Try by ET (24,573)
What wordcount do they come in with... Hmmn, quite a spread, actually! I guess that seems right - although two of those are technically either novels or almost-novels! I didn't realise Legacy of Temptation was nearly that long!
What Pros stories do you think of as long..?
151 emails in my inbox... *g*
And I see the make-you-naked scanners at Heathrow were in the news this morning, as I glanced at Landlady's tv whilst making my coffee... I shouldn't be surprised that when they showed an example of a woman in the scanner it was from head to kneecaps, and her arms were held up and stretched out and you could see all her shapes clearly - and when they showed an example of a man in the scanner it cut him off at the waist... They did later show a rear view which included a bottom, but it could in many ways have been either male or female... I mean, wtf - it's 2010, do they think we might not realise what's there? And really, when you think about it, isn't it more damaging to portray men as crotchless? *g*
Speaking of men with crotches (*g*) - I have to admit to watching Commando Leopard with something akin to dread last night, cos I knew I'd watched it a year or so ago, and I thought I'd posted about it somewhere, so I was hoping to get out of it, in a way... *g* And naturally on the first Sunday for ages that I could do NPPW, it wasn't MS in Macbeth, which I was looking forward to rewatching for the first time since I was in Year 12, or something I like (yeay Rhodes coming up!), but one of the jungle movies... But that said - I still stayed up way too late writing my commentary, and had fun doing the screencaps, and thoroughly enjoyed it all really, so... And I don't remember noticing Curasco and the Priest last time either, cos I'm not at all a slash-goggles-girl - and to be honest it may be that I'm more aware of the possibility of LC-slash than anything else, so... *g* But yeah, fun...
...and I started getting all plotty with it then, when I went to bed, wondering about story ideas for the Big Bang thingie - except that instead I ended up with a plot for the new Dialj challenge, Discovered in Chinese New Year (that should have a the really, shouldn't it..! Also - gargh, why is this computer not showing the banner properly, when my computer did! Why's it cutting our Doyle in half? Waaaah! Is it doing that for anyone else?) I have a strange feeling that there's not going to be alot of interest in Dialj challenges for a while, which would be a bugger, cos there's a guest challenger waiting for next month, but... We'll see - you never know... Anyway - I even had to jump out of bed to write plot down, which was kind of a good thing, even if it was Very Very Late and I Should Have Been In Bed... *g*
Aaaand... okay, I've been writing this all day, and now it's getting on for just two hours left before hometime - wheeee! *g*
Long stories - what do you count as a long story...? *g* The Pros Big Bang says 12,500 words and over at Pros-Lit there was a big hurrah for such long stories, but the ProsLit Long Story List is for stories over 50,000 words (aka "novels" by some definitions). Hmmn - stories I think of as "long" (rather than novels), picked at random:
- November by Sebastian (22,708)
- Suitable Gravity by DVS (49,452)
- Legacy of Tempation by Ellis Ward (100,732)
- Scoring A Try by ET (24,573)
What wordcount do they come in with... Hmmn, quite a spread, actually! I guess that seems right - although two of those are technically either novels or almost-novels! I didn't realise Legacy of Temptation was nearly that long!
What Pros stories do you think of as long..?
151 emails in my inbox... *g*
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Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 04:58 pm (UTC)And hm. Personally, I used to think that anything over 10,000 words is long. It'll still be long to me (II blame my inability to write long-ish things), but I've since revised my opinion to anything above 15,000 words. Stuff which can't be read in under an hour without losing details, basically!
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Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 10:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 10:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 10:28 pm (UTC)I'm not going to be able to participate in DIALJ this month, but I am looking forward to seeing what others come up with! I hope they do. Yay for ideas!
As for long...um...really badly written stories, with lots of errors.... Okay, okay! *g* I have no idea, really. In the examples you list, I'd've counted Suitable Gravity and
I'm not going to be able to participate in DIALJ this month, but I am looking forward to seeing what others come up with! I hope they do. Yay for ideas!
As for long...um...really badly written stories, with lots of errors.... Okay, okay! *g* I have no idea, really. In the examples you list, I'd've counted <i>Suitable Gravity</i> and <Legacy of Temptation</i> right off the bat, but wouldn't have thought of the other two. For what that's worth.
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Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 10:50 am (UTC)Interesting - front view, though? That's what annoyed me here - we got the full front view of women, but not of men!
I have a feeling no one's going to want to play at DIalj, with people working on Big Bang stories, so... I might end up having to put it to sleep for a while - we'll see. Then again, not everyone's taking part in the Big Bang, so maybe it'll carry on as an alternative... But there's only two of us so far, and usually people sign up pretty early if they're going to sign up, so... we'll just see...
As for long...um...really badly written stories, with lots of errors.... Okay, okay! *g* I have no idea, really.
Oh, I'm confused! Did I say something about badly written stories with lots of errors somewhere else?! You've lost me!
Sounds like your "long stories" are properly long stories too... *g*
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Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 01:08 pm (UTC)Yep. *g*
I'm sorry, I was making a joke about badly written stories--meaning that they go on for what seems like an eternity, sometimes. I'm very tired here!
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Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 01:41 pm (UTC)Yep. *g*
Excellent - so you could see all the... hmmn - shapes? *g*
And hee - yes! Badly written fic can go on forever! I kind of thought that was what you meant, but I thought I might have missed something too... phew! *g*
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Date: Monday, 1 February 2010 10:33 pm (UTC)Then again, I'm a terrible judge of word-count, and a good fic, like a good book, will make me forget how long I've been reading. ("Oh, gee, when did it get dark? When did it get to be two a.m.?") I would have guessed that Legacy of Temptation was around 75,000 words, maybe. But I will never forget the glee I felt when I reached the bottom of the first bit and found out it was Part One of Four. :D
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Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 10:52 am (UTC)a good fic, like a good book, will make me forget how long I've been reading. ("Oh, gee, when did it get dark? When did it get to be two a.m.?")
Yes! I love that about reading, about the very best stories - never wanting them to end, being so in their world... *sighs happily*
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Date: Wednesday, 3 February 2010 12:45 am (UTC)When I was a kid, you could tell how much I loved a series if I refused to read the last book, so that it really wouldn't "end." I kept hiding the last classic Nancy Drew book so that I wouldn't finish it too fast and be done with it all. To this day I haven't read The Last Battle, although from what I've read about it I don't think I'm missing very much... :)
Of course, I had outgrown that quirk by the time the last Harry Potter book came out, but I still felt that vague disappointment of going "Oh, now there isn't any more..." (So I went back and read Book 3 again.)
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Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 01:46 pm (UTC)I'm surprised about LoT too - in fact to be honest I'm surprised it's that long, cos it doesn't seem to be, in the original zine... Then again, it's such a fab read that of course it doesn't seem that long... *g*
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Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 06:21 pm (UTC)This got me thinking so I made a list of the stories I've written by length, figuring it would give me a better idea of what I consider long because, as others have said, a bad story can seem eternal while a good story flies by so it's hard to figure out from what I read.
Anyway, going by what I remember while I wrote them, what it felt like as far as time and energy, a short story would be to about 3000 words, medium would be 3000 to maybe 17,500. Long, 17,500 to 50,000, at which point you're talking novella (50,00 to maybe 75,000) and then novel length anything after that.
As you can see, when it came to writing them, "longer" got here a bit sooner than when I went by reading them. *g*
I'm surprised about LoT too - in fact to be honest I'm surprised it's that long, cos it doesn't seem to be, in the original zine... Then again, it's such a fab read that of course it doesn't seem that long...
Exactly.
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Date: Tuesday, 2 February 2010 08:15 pm (UTC)Eek! I feel bad commenting, cos it's just adding to your overflowing inbox!
I shouldn't be surprised that when they showed an example of a woman in the scanner it was from head to kneecaps, and her arms were held up and stretched out and you could see all her shapes clearly - and when they showed an example of a man in the scanner it cut him off at the waist...
Well amazingly, when I saw an example of this scanner it was of a bloke! Full front and back! And because it's normally always nekkid women everywhere and never nekkid men (God forbid!), I was gobsmacked! But sounds like they reverted to type on the news you saw. *sigh*
I have to admit to watching Commando Leopard with something akin to dread last night, cos I knew I'd watched it a year or so ago, and I thought I'd posted about it somewhere, so I was hoping to get out of it, in a way...
Oh, you're so mean to Lew! At least you quite enjoyed it in the end! *g*