The AsCast Jar

As a fairly new writer, I’m curious – why do you write and what does it mean to you?

I began writing because I needed a creative outlet.  After fifteen years of musical theater productions, various choirs, and voice lessons, I quit doing all of those things cold turkey and changed my major from musical theater to history.  Soon, though, I realized how much I missed stretching my mind in a creative way and how much I absolutely needed it.  Singing and performing used to be the way I expressed all of my emotions…but then, without doing those things every day, my creativity felt stifled and bottled up inside of me.  (I’ve since started singing again, by the way – shameless plug! Check out my YouTube Channel! http://www.youtube.com/irishsongbird85)

Writing became my new release. So yes, I write fan fiction for fun and use it as a creative release. Most definitely. As soon as it stops being fun and starts honestly stressing me out, I’ll quit doing it.

I’ve recently started getting some critical reviews of my story, “Like the Touch of Rain.”  They’re unbelievably honest and full of both praise and critique – a reviewer who has taken the time to read and give her frank opinion on what could make me a better writer.  Instead of bristling defensively at anonymous criticism, however, I feel grateful.  The reviews I usually get aren’t critical – they’re only full of things my readers like about the story (with a few exceptions).  I so appreciate those reviews – they’re great self esteem boosters and it’s wonderful to know people connect to what I’m writing.  I’m fairly certain, however, that most reviewers could offer criticism along with their praise.  And yet, they don’t say it.  Why?

I believe the reason is pretty clear.  Reviewers hold back on honest critique because they are worried they will offend and upset writers.  I’m pretty sure that a lot of reviewers who are capable of being critical are scared to share their honest opinions – for quite a while I’ve been one of them, as well, scared to share what I really think.  But – here’s the important part – being critical of something doesn’t mean you don’t like it! Not at all!

I’ve realized all of this in the last few days and it greatly saddens me.  When someone leaves a respectful review, full of both praise AND critical evaluation, why should an author take offense?  The reviewer obviously respects you enough to say, “Hey, this story is pretty good – good enough that I want to read it…but I see a few things that I personally think could make it better.”  This is exactly why I’m grateful for these types of thoughtful reviews; they challenge me to be a better writer and assume that I have it within me to make these improvements.  And as writers, don’t we all want to have the ability to grow and change and achieve more? Even though we all write fan fiction for fun, striving to improve our writing abilities through fan fic will inevitably lead to the improvement of our writing in all other respects, as well.

People respond to respect.  An honest critique is not disrespectful, but a chance for honest introspection and a stretching of our skills.  A critical review will probably cause a small piece of defensiveness to rise up in all of us, and might be difficult to respond to in a mature and humble way, but it can be done.  A simple thanks for reading and expressing an opinion will be much better in the long run than a defensive and arrogant response.  An opinion is all any reviewer is ever offering, after all, and most of the time, her suggestions are probably ones to at least consider.  They aren’t telling you to edit your entire story to fit their specific wants and needs – they’re only doing what any reader of any book on the planet does – deciding what they like and don’t like about a piece of writing.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

The great thing is that here on the internet and on NFFR we have the ability to share these things with each other!  We have the ability to help each other out and create better art!  I personally think that’s fabulous, whether it’s only fan fiction written for fun or not.

Here’s the point of this entry: from now on, my reviews are going to consist of constructive criticism – both praise and critique of things I like and don’t like about stories.  I hope you will do the same for my work because I respect your views (even if I may not agree with them) and I respect your honesty in sharing your critique with me.  Respect is the key word here.  So, have fun reading and reviewing, guys, and may we all grow in our writing with each other!

~Irish

P.S. Please don’t forget about Haiti – if you have already donated to the relief effort, that’s awesome. If you haven’t yet, please give whatever you can! Imagine if everyone donated only $1 or $5…it would be a HUGE amount of money to help them. We are capable of action, so please don’t be idle!!!!!

Yesterday, I spent two hours with the delightful rthstewart in the Mall of America.

When ruth and Tasty are in the same building, you are asking for craziness! However, we generally contained ourselves (we did get a few strange looks from nearby tables, but that added to the fun) and had a good time with the Peter, Saedra, and Edmund dolls that she brought for me!

We will try to do a mini-episode of AsCast to chat about our meet-up in early January when…if…I return from the Philippines. Until then, here are some pictures from our time!

Where we met: by the car track at Lego World.

Ruth frees Saedra from her prison.

Making Peter blonde.

Sae and Ed have a beach party. Sexy times in the dunes! (Or on the table in the food court at the MOA.)

Still waiting for Peter to finish getting his hair colored.

One big happy...family?

Ruth checks Twitter to see if anyone has responded to our status updates.

Hey, now! Don't fight, boys!

We offcially confirmed that Edmund does have that a tattoo on his butt, and it does start with an "S."

Ruth and Tasty with Peter, Saedra, and Edmund! One last pic before Ruth had to leave.

Thank you to ruth for the dolls to start my collection! Next up: finding a wine goblet for Saedra. And perhaps a dress too.

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Chrismukah, etc. and Happy New Year to everyone listening out there!

Thank you for helping AsCast make it as one of the most downloaded literature podcasts on iTunes!

Here’s a little something for your viewing pleasure.

AsCast Elves!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/agu99fCZllylLtwlUAVD

Tune in on December 22nd to hear the winners of the 2009 Revolution Awards AND listen to a very special interview with Mary Sue herself!

So, you all pretty much know what NaNoWriMo is. It’s been a hot topic at the forum. I did it, just ‘cause I thought, “Hey, this will be fun! They’re telling me to write crap and it will turn to gold. I can write crap!” I even read “No Plot? No Problem!” before I started. (Talk about dedication!)

Now it’s over. I succeeded with 61,172 words. Flying colors and all that. Woot.

People have asked to read my story. Their brains, souls, and livers should be grateful that I’ve declined. I don’t want to see that trashbag again.

But enough about that. In the spirit of Not Forgetting Lessons Learned and Passing on Tastywisdom, here is what I learned this month:

1. Writing 50K words a month is flipping easy. I mean, come on: There are no standards. They are telling us to write BS. So what if you wax poetic for 3K words about how painful your hangnail is? It’s valid. Easy beans. It’s easy to pull shit out of your butt. [Erm, sorry for that pleasing image…]
2. I write 50K words a month anyway. Because I was paying attention to word count, I paid attention to how much I write for fan fiction and my original work as well. I easily 50K words a month without NaNoWriMo. And better yet, it’s not shit! [I hope.]
3. If you plan to write crap, crap will come. The problem with going into something with the idea that you’re going to write crap is…you’re going to write crap. When I visualize my stories in my head before I write them, I consider them Divine Inspiration. When they are written, they fall short of the heavenly vision in my head. I always fall short of what I aim for. It happens. So what I need to do is not plan to write crap and hope that Divine Inspiration will emerge, but plan Divine Inspiration and hope that it doesn’t come out as crap.
4. I cannot finish a self-contained plot in 50K words. Not even close. This may not come as a surprise to anyone who has read my stories!
5. I need to know my characters before I start. Otherwise I flounder, they flounder, we all flounder. Then drown in mediocre, horribly inconsistent behavior. I need to know my characters. I mean, REALLY know them. In the Biblical sense. Sure, they might surprise me from time to time, but I shouldn’t be surprised when one becomes an alcoholic. [You’d think I’d know the signs by now.]
6. I need a detailed outline. If you don’t know where you’re going and how to get there, it’s hard to get there, right? Duh.
7. I have to, like, like my plot. I chose a stupid plot bunny and chose to run with it. It was dumb. I knew it was dumb. But I did it anyway. And, surprise, it’s still as dumb now as it was a month ago. Go figure.

I recommend NaNoWriMo, even if it’s just for the sake of coming up with Genius Gems of Truth like I offered above. It was fun, mostly. And you learn about yourself, although the lessons might be fairly obvious.

I don’t know if I’ll do it again, but it was worth it. And not even, like, hard.

[If anyone has Wisdom they would like to share about their NaNo experiences, feel free to share in the comments.]

Way back in June of 2008, I started writing my very first Narnia fan fiction. I didn’t have any ties at all in the fandom and wasn’t yet working for NFFR. To try and promote my story, I headed over to www.williammoseleyfan.net to post the story on their forums.  I started posting my story, “Awake,” (which is now on hiatus) and people there started reading it…one quite notable name who we now all know as our very own Hev.  She soon began posting her own story there (which is still in progress), “The Gypsy’s Daughter.”  Since she was reading mine, I started reading hers and thought it was SO interesting, with such a distinct style and flair.  I was definitely intrigued by her…a gut feeling, I guess. At first, it was just casual conversation between us, another internet acquaintance, but one who seemed to be quite intelligent and interesting.

In August of 2008, I started working for NFFR as a screener and began to promote the site on the William Moseley Fan forums, making Hev aware of it.  It wasn’t until NFFR started its own forums, less than a year ago now, however, that Hev and I really began to talk a lot.  I got her to come over to NFFR and she began doing graphics for Tasty since she’s such a talented artist.  In February of 2009, I got the idea for AsCast and immediately knew that Hev needed to be on it with Tasty and I – she always offered interesting perspectives because of her background in psychology and just has a beautiful, creative way of seeing the world.  SO, anyway…all of the AsCast girls had our first Skype conversation in mid-March of 2009 and we hit it off. The rest, as they say, is history.

Since that first time, Hev and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time both talking and video chatting on Skype, both about Narnia and just about our everyday lives.  Hours upon hours upon hours…I don’t even know how many.  We knew each other pretty well, I would say, for two people who have never actually met in person.  A few months ago, I mentioned that I’d always wanted to go to Boston (where Hev lives) and she graciously said that if I ever came, I could stay with her.  Soooo, at the beginning of September, I looked up flights, found some cheap ones for my birthday/Halloween weekend…and off I went.

Because Hev and I already talked about all of the things we did in AsCast’s Episode 6.5 (which will be released in a week or so), I won’t go into detail here.  Suffice it to say that I can’t believe that NARNIA brought me such a good friend.  Ruth always calls fandom or internet friends “imaginary;” however, there’s nothing imaginary about Hev.  She’s genuinely a REALLY GREAT friend who I feel privileged and lucky to have met.  She’s honestly one of my favorite people in the entire world – definitely one of the people that I have the most respect for and admire most.

So, anyway – enough being sappy.  If you’d like to hear about all of the things that Hev and I did while I was in Boston, keep a lookout for that extra episode of AsCast which should tide you over until Episode 7 comes out in December. JThanks for reading and listening! Here are some pictures from the trip!

Irish in Salem with the "Bewitched" statue

Hev in Salem

Candlelit ghost tour in Salem

mooooooooooooooook!

Yep, those are wax mustaches.

For a podcast about Narnia fan fiction, we sure don’t write about writing too much! So here’s a little bit of what’s going on in my little head.

[Nightmare Spoilers Ahead!]

A long overnight bus ride from Chicago to Minneapolis gives a sleepless person a lot of time to think. That sleepless person being me, I was naturally thinking about fan fiction. And I have come to a decision.

You see, I have been in a stalemate with myself for the past couple of weeks, ever since I got my Big Awesome Idea about where to go with Nightmare. I have covered topics from adultery and child rape in HKDS to killing beloved canon characters in COTC. I covered abortion in His Fool. So I’m not afraid of most topics. But there were some parts of my characters that I wanted to bring out in Nightmare that I have been frankly scared of touching.

Why?

Because this is Narnia. We can joke about how hot Peter is and hook him up with dazzling women with lavender eyeballs, but some things are still untouchable because this is a very conservative fandom.

So my dilemma has been deciding whether I want to go there. Whether I am willing to alienate many of my readers. Because I am quite, quite sure that I will.

Outing major OCs as having same-sex attraction—and revealing a long-term relationship—will not make me many friends in the Narnia community. Ripping the Pevensies to shreds worse than I ever have will make people question my mental stability (which may be a good thing to do, but that’s another topic for another time! ). Having a character commit suicide won’t help either.

I can already see the condemning reviews in my head, saying that I have finally gone too far in my manipulation of Innocent Narnia.

But what I decided on the bus in my sleep-deprived state was that I don’t care. Of course, I do care what people think. But this is my story. This is where I was going from the beginning with The Secret Chronicles of Narnia, even if I didn’t know how I was going to get there. So I am going to do whatever the heck I want with my last Narnia fan fiction and take whatever criticism and infamy results.

Let drama beyond imagination ensue. Or end Su. Either works.

I have always said, “Go out with a bang!” That didn’t turn out so well when I said that about graduating from college (*ahem* pole-dancing in front of whole class after senior banquet *ahem*), but what have I got to lose in writing fan fiction?

Exactly!

Nothing.

To infinity infamy and beyond!

…We have also given it its own look as well!

Revolution Radio's New Look!

Hev, of course, made the beautiful header. Cheers!

That’s right! The eagerly anticipated fifth episode of AsCast is here, Episode 5: In Which Rabadash is Barry Manilow. We discuss chapters 7-12 of Prince Caspian, a character analysis of Lucy, Tumnus’ Tune Ties, and more!

So what are you waiting for? Check it out!

…Tumnus wants you to.

It’s just about 3am and instead of sleeping I’ve found myself watching youtube clips from my favorite movie Wristcutters: A Love Story and it really reminded me about how much I adored this film…so I thought I’d share a movie recommendation.

Based off of the novella “Kneller’s Happy Campers” by Etgar Keret, Wristcutters is a bizarre fantasy that takes place in a dusty wasteland of a world where people who commit suicide are sent spend their afterlife. “Who could think of a better punishment…everything’s the same here, just a little worse.”

Hardly the lush landscape of Narnia....But a stairway to heaven, perhaps?

After Zia “offs” himself he gets a job at a pizza joint, destined to remain apathetic about his existence and full of regret about leaving his love, Desiree, behind. But soon he learns that she “offed” herself shortly after he did and he heads out on a journey to find her.

Zia and Eugene on the road to find Desiree

While it may seem bleak, this film touches many powerful themes in a quirky way–especially the value of life and love. And sunglasses. I don’t cry often, but I welled up with tears by the end. Oh, did I mention it’s a comedy. Har har har.

With Patrick Fugit (the voice behind our “your face looks like a jar of smashed…” sound clip) and Tom Waits on the screen, and Gogol Bordello dominating the soundtrack, this movie is practically everything I love wrapped into a neat little package that fits into my DVD player. (Er, I can’t help but mention that the opening scene is set with my favorite song by Tom Waits, “Dead and Lovely”……..)

What am I waiting for….here’s the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJNoMun8Y4M

Just a little more insight in the wacky shiz that touches my heart and inspires my mind.

Okay, I’m watching this show called “My Monkey Baby” on TLC. All I can say is really? Really. People scare me sometimes- this is one of those times.

This woman was putting MAKEUP on her MONKEY, who she calls her DAUGHTER, and her second husband considers this animal to be his STEP DAUGHTER. The monkey was in their wedding. Yes- the flower girl in the wedding. I’m a wee bit disturbed.

The warning message which shows each time the show starts back up is disturbing enough. Then these people are saying that they’re getting presents for their new baby monkey. Like, hand-knit blankets, and diaper bags. Do these people not quite understand that these are animals? AHH!!!

I’m just in shock. The fact that this one couple spent $4500 on their monkey was enough for me. I continue to watch, if only in shock.

~Kate