Random Thoughts
My obsessive-compulsive tendencies truly come to the fore when I get interested in something I read. I remember reading The Sunne in Splendour in the early 1990s, and suddenly I was ordering obscure books through my public library (this was before Amazon and the Internet) to learn every tidbit I could find about the Wars of the Roses. I did the same thing with the French Revolution after reading an historical novel set in that period when I was a teenager. I could mention my preoccupations with Star Trek, Jane Austen novels, Harry Potter, Anya Seton books, but why? It has become clear that there are a hell of a lot of people out there just like me. Strangely, I only see these people online--my immediate circle of friends and family do not appear to get all worked up about Mr. Darcy's dive into the pond, nor do they envision reading HP fanfiction as an excellent way to spend a lazy evening. I do have one friend who adores Alan Rickman, but otherwise my friends and family think I'm rather strange. I am very handy at trivia games, though...
Back to the obsession thing. As my interest in HP fanfiction has refused to wane, I am working my way through approximately three to four thousand stories. I have them organized by bookmarks on my browser, grouped by first letter of the title, and randomly select a story based on the story summary or the pairing. After I have read the story, it gets deleted from bookmarks and goes into an Excel file, where the story is sorted by my rating (Best, Excellent, Good, Read, etc.) and I make comments as necessary. I plan on importing the Excel file into a database, but that will remain a pending project for now.
Not sure how I got on this topic. I think it was because I just finished a wonderful three part series by Razzberry, in which the final story was not completely uploaded. I have little hope of ever reading the last twenty chapters, as Razzberry apparently does not want to be in the fandom anymore My little OCD mind cannot fathom this kind of authorial neglect. One writes thousands of words (and it really is a well-written series), then fails to completely upload the story. Why??? I knew when I started the series that I would face this disappointment, but for some reason I guess I thought the story would miraculously turn up via the Wayback Machine. No dice. I checked the comments on the story, and no one had reviewed it since 2006, so I guess everyone has become resigned to never knowing how the story will turn out. I will resign myself as well, and reinforce myself against the temptation to read works-in-progress...it never ends well.
Back to the obsession thing. As my interest in HP fanfiction has refused to wane, I am working my way through approximately three to four thousand stories. I have them organized by bookmarks on my browser, grouped by first letter of the title, and randomly select a story based on the story summary or the pairing. After I have read the story, it gets deleted from bookmarks and goes into an Excel file, where the story is sorted by my rating (Best, Excellent, Good, Read, etc.) and I make comments as necessary. I plan on importing the Excel file into a database, but that will remain a pending project for now.
Not sure how I got on this topic. I think it was because I just finished a wonderful three part series by Razzberry, in which the final story was not completely uploaded. I have little hope of ever reading the last twenty chapters, as Razzberry apparently does not want to be in the fandom anymore My little OCD mind cannot fathom this kind of authorial neglect. One writes thousands of words (and it really is a well-written series), then fails to completely upload the story. Why??? I knew when I started the series that I would face this disappointment, but for some reason I guess I thought the story would miraculously turn up via the Wayback Machine. No dice. I checked the comments on the story, and no one had reviewed it since 2006, so I guess everyone has become resigned to never knowing how the story will turn out. I will resign myself as well, and reinforce myself against the temptation to read works-in-progress...it never ends well.