Where Self-Deprecation Is "Cool"

pity, party of one

2012-06-10T03:28:37Z

Dear self,

You're not a bad writer. Inability to proofread aside, you may actually be a good writer, so accept that it's okay to think of yourself as such. Trust me, you're at no risk of becoming an egomaniac any time ever.

Wishing for wings that work

2012-05-03T00:06:59Z

I wish I knew if there was a summary critiquing community. 'Cause I think mine suck. They're slightly better than claiming the title says it all or whining about writing summaries but still...

ffrantstoself @ 2012-01-02T21:40:00

2012-01-02T21:40:40Z

Dear self; You yourself dislike the idea of fanfics using actual historical wars and atrocities as backdrops for rape-fantasy fics. It's probably far worse if you are instead thinking of using them as backdrops for happy brotherly bonding between immortal human-eating monsters, even if that idea is at least more original. Seriously, self, if you're coming up with this stuff you probably need to lay off the Simon R Green for a bit.

Dear Self,

2011-12-21T03:13:41Z

Seriously, stop starting a fic and then leaving it alone as soon as you get another idea. YOU USED TO NEVER DO THAT WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT NOW?!

Stop feeling super embarrassed about your older fics. Everyone has one or two really bad fics, but so what? Well, it's true that you have many more horrible fics than just one or two, but you do have a few good ones! So stop spazzing out and hiding under the goddamn bed every time someone mentions one of them. JUST REWRITE THEM ALREADY, LIKE YOU'VE BEEN SAYING YOU'RE GOING TO DO FOR THE PAST 4 MONTHS.

STOP BEING RIDICULOUSLY STUPID.

From,
Self.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-08-18T23:42:00

2011-08-19T03:42:32Z

Dear self,

Stop comparing your writing to everyone else's. Take a break from reading for a while if it's affecting you to the point where procrastinating from something you claim to enjoy has become a leisure activity.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the way you write. A bit obscure at times maybe, with a few mistakes here or there (squash those perfectionist tendencies--you're still human), but your style is yours and yours alone. And although you're still trying to figure out exactly what that style is, the journey's ultimately more important than the destination, so have the most fun you can with it before you arrive there with nowhere else to go.

More importantly, though, for the sake of your quickly depleting sources of caffeine, please hurry up and finish that one fic so you won't have to secretly feed those other plot bunnies beneath the shroud of a nagging conscience.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-07-24T07:45:00

2011-07-24T11:46:13Z

Self, I am disappoint. You've pointed this error out to others, and then do it yourself?

In-game distance =/= Actual distance. Maybe it takes character A's sprite ten seconds to get from point B to point C, but in-game, it probably takes character A six hours.

Also, finish something already.

Still love,
me

ffrantstoself @ 2011-03-19T18:05:00

2011-03-19T18:05:49Z

Yes, self, I know it's disappointing that almost nobody wants to use the ficmeme you set up, that there are very few requests on it, and that only you and one other person have filled any of them. That does not mean you should attempt to fill ALL of them. For one thing there are requests for things you personally can't write without being triggered on there, and for another you really, really don't have the time.

dons mod hat

2011-03-17T23:14:59Z

Porn spam has been deleted, and although gobbledyu0 said s/he is not coming back I will ban hir soon as I'm on something more reliable than this mobile. Thank you for the alert.

Deadline alert, deadline alert

2011-03-12T20:17:27Z

Dear Self,

You have at best a month and a half to write the remaining 120k words of your Big Bang... Maybe, just maybe you should stop getting distracted by all those movies that you haven't seen in "omg so long" or by those fics that keep cropping up in your OTP comm.

In fact, it might be nice if you could avoid the internet all together, but since the world is more likely to end before that happens, at least don't get caught up in something and lose five or six hours before you remember that you're supposed to be writing. To aid in this, it might be a good idea to avoid anything that even remotely looks like a TV Tropes link.

Also, dear Muses, could we focus on what we need to write now, instead of a few chapters from now? Because that's really not helping anything.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-03-02T00:59:00

2011-03-02T05:59:48Z

It is more than fair to want to write ridiculously plotless fluff for your OTP.

But that plan will be significantly trickier when they're the monarchs of Attolia.

Just a little thing to keep in mind.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-03-01T19:31:00

2011-03-01T19:31:37Z

Dear self; you probably should stop reading fics that you know you'll hate just to fulfill cravings for certain characters and scenarios.

why pwp and me just don't get along

2011-02-19T03:15:01Z

When you write a fic about sex, you do not mention chess.

Or talk about things a chess player should do. ~~Wasn't this fic supposed to be about sex?~~

You do not stop as soon as it comes to actual penetration.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-02-07T03:31:00

2011-02-07T03:30:44Z

Dear me

Stop writing about the insane and/or angry trolls (preferably also stop swearing like said motherfcking insane and/orangry trolls), and get on with that story about the creepy-joke-troll being less of a creepy-joke-troll.

Even -if- the author has already done it. Adorably. And far better than you can.

Speaking of which, if -you- have no confidence in your writing, how do you expect anyone else to have any confidence in your writing? Why write at all? Think about that for a while, and come up with a good answer. Preferably soon.

Me.

Y halo there outing myself on an anonymous meme. *sigh*

ffrantstoself @ 2011-02-05T14:03:00

2011-02-05T19:03:16Z

Seriously....it took you three years to finally get over the fact that *gasp* there exists RPS of your favorite band? I can understand feeling kindasorta surprised or shocked at first, but....THREE....YEARS?!? Three years of that confused and uncomfortable mindset, wondering if you're really that horrible and gross because you actually felt kinda intrigued and fascinated by some of the fics and skimmed through them every now and then?

Look, there are plenty of things you could have done in your life that would be worth feeling disgusted at yourself over, and reading friggin' fanfiction is not one of them! Seriously...all that energy spent being mad at yourself or the people who wrote the fics could've been spent...oh, I dunno, caring about something that was actually worth caring about. You really need a life if "Oh no, someone ruined a band I like with icky evil fanfic! And I actually took the time to read it, what is wrong with me?" is really that big a concern to you.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-02-03T23:46:00

2011-02-03T23:46:44Z

Dear self:

If a summary or header warns for something that squicks you, for crying out loud either don't click on it or click Back as soon as you see it. Curiosity may not kill the cat but it can sure as hell trigger you.

About that tronkinkmeme WIP...

2011-01-31T09:25:29Z

FINISH. THE GODDAMN. FIC.

Sincerely - a very anxious, very pissed off shirozora

Dear Self,

2011-01-28T14:48:43Z

What happened to torture scenes making you feel ill, even ones you wrote yourself? Coz dude, that looks like torture to me in that one fic.

Also, I thought you were going to try to lighten up on the rape this round? Okay, okay, you refuse to believe that that pairing could be anything else. So why did you claim that prompt?! You knew it wouldn't turn out nice.

PS. Decide if the warning is going to be "rape" or "non-eroticised rape" already and stop changing your header line.</cut>

On fluff...

2011-01-21T23:37:57Z

Fluff is not:
1: A fic with "Desperately" in the title.
2: That begins with a character angsting on how the past five years have been a waste of time. In detail.
3: That then goes into a flashback about a bad fever he had, that left him bedridden and pretty much incoherent.
Self, you really do need practise if THAT is how you start your fluff fic.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-01-18T15:27:00

2011-01-18T15:27:09Z

What the hell, self? You're already dealing with way too much in real life! You don't need to be writing more fanfic right now! If you are, it needs to be one of your many, many works in progress, not an entirely new one!

Particularly not an entirely new one that's likely to be controversial. The fact that the fandom in question is easy-going about slash is a hopeful sign that they wouldn't mind a fic exploring a character's gender identity issues, but it may not be a guarantee. The fact that the character in question is canonically kind of a jerk and you don't plan to change his personality for the fic would probably earn flames from people who take it as making fun of the transgendered. I personally think there's a huge difference between "I think all people of a certain group are jerks" and "this particular character is going to act like a jerk regardless of which groups he belongs to", but it's kind of hard to get that across if he's the only member of that group in a particular story.

(Further context: the character in question is not canonically transgendered, but nothing has canonically confirmed it's impossible for him to be so, and there are rumours on the TVTropes "Wild Mass Guessing" page that he could be. Rumours are fandom-specific and might take a while to explain, but not at all related to the fact that he acts like a jerk. I saw the WMG page, remembered a fic I saw a while back and loved which explored a similar theme with a different character, thought it could be interesting to explore the idea, and it's sort of stuck in my head. Character is canonically male and I was going to explore the idea of him secretly being FTM, not coming out as MTF, which would be a bigger change, though either's probably workable in the hands of a knowledgeable writer. I am not transgendered myself, but I think I've done enough research to pull off writing about it reasonably well.)

Even if nobody sends outright flames, you're probably still going to get stupid questions from reviewers if you try this. You really don't need an extra potential source of irritation right now.

ffrantstoself @ 2011-01-04T18:40:00

2011-01-04T23:40:55Z

Whatever happened to writing about the somewhat neglected ladies instead of the most-popular-of-all-of-everything-in-this-fandom slash pairing? Even if you do have a slightly different take on it than most, even if you do have a lot of cool symbolism - well, FINE, so what if your idea is more concrete and cohesive with these, BE LIKE THAT. Just write the ladies too after you've exorcised these plotbunnies, kay? And dammit, write all of it on your own time!

Sincerely,

Me.

Get back here, you.

2011-01-03T11:39:25Z

Hey, shirozora,

What do you think you're doing? You just got to the most crucial scene in your South Park fic, the one you spent +15,000 words building towards. You know that after that scene there aren't many scenes left until the end. You really are that close to finishing the monster.

So what the fuck do you think you're doing rolling about in the tronkinkmeme? Get your ass out of there-I don't care that you have a WIP there, too. You can write two stories at once.

Not amused, me.

ffrantstoself @ 2010-12-30T11:37:00

2010-12-30T11:37:01Z

Dear self:

No! You cannot go to Jamie Hewlett's devArt page and give him links to your MSTings of bad Gorillaz fanfic! I do not care how funny it would be, nor whether he would find them funny, because even if he does he's likely to sue either you or the authors of the fics and it's just generally the worst idea ever!

Hey, you!

2010-12-17T05:45:31Z

Yeah you, self...

WTF is up with this whole "must write porn that must be uncomfortable to be IC" kick you're on? Really? Wouldn't it be nice to shift from that Yuletide piece where it is kinda the whole point of your fic to something... uh... not weird and uncomfortable? No, not Black Books. Not PA RPF. How about flipping back over to some Big Bang Theory? Oh right... you write that awkward too. Uh...

Hey, brain? Little help please? I know there are fandoms that I will/can write that don't have to be a test of how much time you can spend trying to get at the appropriate level of discomfort.

ffrantstoself @ 2010-12-14T04:09:00

2010-12-14T12:09:37Z

Dear self,

Please to not be splooshing over your own writing. I'm sure it's not as good as you think it is. Even if it is, that's inexcusably self-centered.

Also, it's my first time posting here. *waves*

This will likely make no sense to anyone but the intended rant target

2010-12-14T03:49:24Z

Dear You, who is really me, you need to STOP.

Just. Stop.

In fact, making this post is still doing it.

You are less then 2k words from finishing this chapter. I know it's been hard to get back into the flow after 2 years and you came back to a difficult chapter to write. You have fought and fought with yourself but YOU CAN DO IT.

Stop looking on LJ. Stop looking on dA. And or the love of all that is sweet STOP opening Twitter! Turn your phone off, tell your boyfriend that this is really important and he needs to stop talking to you like he is right now even though YOU REALLY DO CARE THAT HIS GEAR MATCHES ON HIS WARLOCK NOW. YAY.

No, I do not want to do a random even though yes I need gear.

2k words. You go girl! You DO it! Ffffff!!

Sincerely, Me, who is also you.

Where Self-Deprecation Is "Cool"

pity, party of one

Wishing for wings that work

ffrantstoself @ 2012-01-02T21:40:00

Dear Self,

ffrantstoself @ 2011-08-18T23:42:00

ffrantstoself @ 2011-07-24T07:45:00

ffrantstoself @ 2011-03-19T18:05:00

*dons mod hat*

Deadline alert, deadline alert

ffrantstoself @ 2011-03-02T00:59:00

ffrantstoself @ 2011-03-01T19:31:00

why pwp and me just don't get along

ffrantstoself @ 2011-02-07T03:31:00

ffrantstoself @ 2011-02-05T14:03:00

ffrantstoself @ 2011-02-03T23:46:00

About that tronkinkmeme WIP...

Dear Self,

On fluff...

ffrantstoself @ 2011-01-18T15:27:00

ffrantstoself @ 2011-01-04T18:40:00

Get back here, you.

ffrantstoself @ 2010-12-30T11:37:00

Hey, you!

ffrantstoself @ 2010-12-14T04:09:00

This will likely make no sense to anyone but the intended rant target

dons mod hat