The AsCast Jar

Archive for the ‘Fan Fiction’ Category

Excuse me while I indulge in a little self-therapy.

Hi, I’m Tasty. And I’m in a writing rut.

I’ve updated “Nightmare” twice in the last seven months. I haven’t written a new word for any original stories in 2010.

In 2006, I was a lazy 18-year-old who would write “The High King, the Duchess, and the Secret” when I was supposed to be studying calc or microecon. Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I was often ten chapters ahead of posting on ff.net (which is, you know, insane).

In the summer of 2009, I was a recent college grad who hated her sales internship. So instead of cold calling, I finished the second half of “The Changing of the Constellations” in an inspired frenzy. In the fall of 2009, in lieu of applying for jobs (I only applied to two!), I started writing “Nightmare.” I was also spitting out a chapter a day for my original fic, which I managed to finish before I left the country on Christmas Day—130,000 words altogether.

But then January hit, and everything began to change, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time. 

1. I started working full-time.
2. Mr. Bad Romance burst back into my life.

 Work. Suddenly my time was no longer mine. I was on a schedule, no longer staying up until 3:00am in the morning as the mood struck. The fast pace tired me, and though I had my evenings free, I was either too mentally exhausted to write, or too preoccupied with #2—Mr. Bad Romance.

 Details are interesting, but unimportant, regarding Mr. BR. Sufficed to say, having a wild/fluctuating/crazy love life does NOT help writing the way one would think. What’s the point of writing about love triangles if you’re living it? Sure, I’ve had experiences with amor before—“HKDS” didn’t come out of nowhere—but now that life is a full-fledged soap opera, I have no inclination to create more drama in my head.

 Okay. So. Here is where I try to piece together everything I’ve said above and try to fix myself. I know that: 

1. I enjoy writing only when I am NOT supposed to be writing. I know many other Neffers are the same way. When I was supposed to be a student, I was writing “HKDS”; when I was struggling with what I wanted to do with my life, I was writing about Talia’s identity crisis in “COTC.”
2. I write to escape, and when life is more interesting than fiction, I don’t write.
3. I need to learn to manage my time better. Working full-time is absolutely no excuse.

 What’s the bottom line? I don’t know. I’m sure as hell not quitting my job, and wising up and calming down my life would make things boring around here.

 What I do know is, I miss writing. At the very least, it’s a hobby. At best, it’s a future. So either way, I want to need to get back into it.

TBC…

Okay, we all know that the name Kate is synonymous with grammar by now. I’ve made no secret of the fact that, more than anything, I appreciate grammatically sound, well-written stories much more than your average reader does. This being said, I feel compelled to write this:

STOP ABUSING THE APOSTROPHE!

Yes, the poor apostrophe has been abused by those speakers and writers of the English language for years. Next to homophones, homonyms, and generally mis-spelled words, apostrophe abuse is one of the most common things I see done wrong. It’s not just in writing, either: I’ve witnessed professionals who have abused the apostrophe just as badly as a fifth grade student.

So what’s all this about, you wonder? There are a few very simple things which I feel that people ought to be reminded of.

The Cardinal Rules of Apostrophe Usage (or, How to Not Massacre the Poor Apostrophe)

1. Making a word into a plural form DOES NOT require an apostrophe.

If referring to more than one furry domesticated feline, you would say “Cats”. The famous musical by the same name does, in fact, refer to these multiple felines, albeit of the singing and dancing variety. “Cat’s” refers to something which belongs to your furry friend, like a toy, a variety of sustenance, or a person.

2. “Its” and “It’s” are NOT the same word, and are not interchangeable.

“It’s” = “It is.” It is a contraction, a set of words or numbers in which one or more letters or numbers have been omitted (Purdue OWL). It is thus appropriate to write something like “It’s a shame more people don’t know about this site!” If you used “its,” some people in the know may have a tendency to stare at you like a deer that has decided to stand in the middle of the road.  Carnage may occur.

“Its” = the possession of it. It is a pronoun, a word used to replace a noun. Along with its merry cousins he, she, I, they, and others, they are the hands down best masqueraders out there. When you use the pronoun “it,” it is commonly used to refer to a person or object like “this computer,” “my hamster,” “that fire hydrant,” or “the imposing office building.” Although you’re probably saying “But wait, “its” is supposed to be possessive! Why doesn’t it have an apostrophe?”, there is a simple answer: English is just a language full of confusions. “Its,” then, refers to the belonging of an “it.”

Just think: contraction before possession with “it”. Kinda like having a baby.

3. Your teachers didn’t lie to you: you do use the apostrophe + s combination to denote possession. They just didn’t tell you the whole story.

The immortal apostrophe + s combination is indeed used to denote possession: just for singular nouns. “Office,” “snowboard,” “chocolate,” or “James” all qualify as singular nouns. In this case, to refer to something that belonged to any of these persons, places, or things, you would simply add the apostrophe and s. Thus we get “office’s,” “snowboard’s,” “chocolate’s,” and “James’s.” Yes. “James’s.” There’s a lot of controversy about whether or not to use the apostrophe + s combo at the end of a singular name that ends in “s” in the English community. Suffice to say that either “James’s” or “James’” are acceptable.

4. Plural nouns aren’t all that special, they’re just different.

Plural nouns are commonly identified by the “s” on the end. “Bars,” “ostriches,” “orthodontists,” and “the Smiths” are all plural nouns. To make things belong to plural nouns, just tack that apostrophe on to the end of it. For those funky nouns that in their plural form don’t end in a “s” (such as geese or sheep), do the apostrophe + s thing. So, it’s now the sheep’s meadow or the geese’s pond.

5. Although an apostrophe notes possession, don’t use it with a possessive pronoun!

Pronouns can be possessive without the help of their friendly neighborhood apostrophe. Really. Pronouns like “his” “yours” and “her” are all possessive pronouns. Adding an apostrophe is like pinning a real donkey tail on a pin the tail on the donkey game at a kid’s birthday party- it’s just not appropriate. So, don’t do it.

*deep breath* Ah, it’s so good to get this off my chest! I hope this helps a little to clear up some common misconceptions of the use of the apostrophe. If it didn’t… try this: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/1/.

Cheers and happy writing!
~Kate

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!