So lately everyone has been posting about things that made them happy that day. In a RADICAL twist on the meme, today I'm posting something that DOESN'T make me happy (I thiiiiink I normally post the opposite, but who knows):

I cannot find the yellow legal pad that has all the notes for the story I am working on. Things like, umm, character names, a MAP, research, plot notes, thematic notes, etc, and did I mention A CAREFULLY-DRAWN-OUT MAP OF THE FICTIONAL LAND? AND THE CHARACTER NAMES? ARRRRGH.

And I've looked through all the yellow papers in my file folders but apparently I didn't rip them out and file them. Which means they must be at home instead of at my apartment, which is worrying because my parents moved all my stuff around in September and I've had trouble finding anything that wasn't on a bookshelf (i.e., most everything). So it's potentially lost and I don't feel comfortable just forging ahead without my research and notes.

I would be biting my nails if I did that, but I don't, so.

While I was reorganizing my tags, I realized that I make a LOT of private posts that I mean to make public but then forget about. So I'm going to repost those that I was entertained by so that you can, you know, have the benefit of my genius, etc.

This one is from 2006 May 24, just over two years ago.

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So, I was trying to figure out why, though I love HP, I always feel slightly disappointed by it. Eventually I stumbled upon the reason, which I quickly realized should have been obvious.

Harry Potter does not have spaceships.

Yes, all our Potterian characters are sadly Earthbound. No hyperdrives, no warp engines, no faster-than-light travel. It's quite disappointing. Fortunately, my imagination was able to leap in and save the day.

Presenting Jehnt in Harry Potter Lord Voldemort and the SPACEBROOMS OF DOOOOOOM...

( don't talk to me about brooms )

So I watched the leaked version of Stargate SG-1: The Ark of Truth, and it reminded me of how much I love these things:

a) Daniel/Vala.
b) SG-1 10x20 "Unending"
c) That one danvala fic I started writing after watching "Unending" approximately twenty times (ie, the day it aired).

So I went to seek out that danvala fic (creatively titled "Unending fic") so I could read it. And I was reading along being pleased by the characterization when suddenly IT BRANCHED THE FUCK OFF INTO SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LIKE ORIGINAL FICTION NOT EVEN FANFICTION OR STARGATE OR SCIENCE FICTION OF ANY SORT JUST LIKE BAM LIKE SO MUCH FOR DANVALA BITCHES WE'RE TALKING POLITICS NOW AND I WAS LIKE WHAT. And I don't remember exactly where I was going with the danvala fic (other than hot smexing, probably, because danvala has no plot and danvala needs no plot!*) and I am soooooo disappointed in myself.

And that all reminded me of my one great Battlestar Galactica fic (where by "great" I mean "isn't a crossover"), which I have decided to tentatively title "Sometimes You Have to Roll the Hard Six." It's about a group of Sixes that defects to the Galactica. I know what I want to do with it, more or less, but my creative inspiration for it has been flagging.

Which actually brings me to a question. Those of you who finish fic -- and there are those of you on my flist who do -- HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH PLOT? Because that's my real stumbling point. As long as I know where I'm supposed to be going I can get there, but most of the time I come up with several ideas and then am like "oh, we need some kind of conflict here to provide plot. they get attacked? aliens? bombs? SHIT RODNEY NEEDS SOMETHING TO FIX" and then panic, think all my plot ideas are stupid, and write ten-page-long conversations between Bones, Buffy, and Booth (WHO IS REALLY ANGEL, GUYS, I AM SURE OF IT). Which, okay, fun, but utterly useless in terms of advancing the plot. Because there isn't a plot. I read a lot of fucking books and watch a lot of movies, too, so why do I have so much trouble with basic plot ideas? All of my ideas go like this: "and then character X runs into character Y, and they have this humorous or otherwise interesting conversation, then... shit happens, man, hell if I know." Does anyone have any suggestions/advice? I'd really like to stick some plot into my writing** so I could actually finish it.

( * )
( ** )

1. Thanks to the Dean/Lorne fic, my word processor now tries to auto-insert "Winchester" whenever I write anything beginning with wi-. Fandom for the winchester!

2. Hilariously, while looking at my site stats I found that people were being referred to my site through searching for "dimensions for an average bathroom" and similar things. Thanks, google, for putting my "how I build sims houses" page in the top ten search results for this. I could never have done it without you.

3. While looking at my site stats, I had an amazing revelation. People other than me actually look at the very limited pages on my website. Who knew!? Certainly not I. Anyway, this has made me put a higher priority on revamping my site so that my pages include actual content.

4. Obligatory Fanlib opinion: Fanlib can suck it. fanarchive ftw!

We're trying something new today. Have a song: Dizzee Rascal - Fix Up Look Sharp (Ratatat remix).

[Poll #685068]

( So, the other day I read the craziest fic EVER. )

( Scary typos I've found in fics, or Why You Should Have a Beta. )

( On password-protected fic, or why I won't ever read it. )

Does anyone have any insight as to why people lock down fic in this way?

Also, hi! Look at me, all posting and whatnot!

ETA: lookit how I prettified my journal. *swoons* stripes yay!

I like bad puns. I mean to stop using them because they always slip out at inappropriate times, but I can't make it stop. I had originally had a whole entry written on another subject but I deleted it because there were too many bad puns.

It was an entry about punctuation*, no less.

*cries*

They won't go away!

( * )

A post! A post! My kingdom for a -- nevermind, I don't know where I was going with that.

So, aaaaaaaaanyway, on to the less incoherent stuff.

( status of my fics, among them the inferi bunnies one )

( questions about betas )

Also, the other day it struck me that someone could write a deliciously bad fic to Marjorie Fair's "Empty Room" (mp3 here [right-click save-as to download]). It would, naturally, involve a very angsty Harry who was in a relationship with someone -- it doesn't matter who, really, but we'll go with Draco -- and he has to Go Fight Voldemort Imminently and he's all angsty and it's VERY DRAMATIC (and the lyrics are interspersed throughout the fic at inappropriate times, interrupting the narrative flow and causing the reader to pull their hair out) and he just thinks the relationship is SO POINTLESS because he's GOING TO DIE, and so he starts sabotaging it and making Draco cry (mainly he does that because Jehnt likes it when Draco cries, which we probably shouldn't think about too much) and then Harry sits in his EMPTY ROOM all alone and watches the sun stream in through the windows and thinks it is very beautiful. And then Harry dies. Or, if that's TOO angsty an ending, ( then it ends kind of like this: )

The funny thing about all this is that I don't even LIKE that song.

ETA: I just realized that is the first fic (drabble, whatevs. do we really distinguish between them?) I've ever posted publicly. *facepalm* OH MY GOD. Yet, despite this, I feel that I should celebrate. I'm going to go break out the ... soymilk. Yeah. That sounds good. (Dude, we have like no exciting food at my house currently. Not even any ice cream.)

ETA again: I just reread the thing I wrote again, and I'm really unsure about the paragraph breaks in the first half. Advice?