'writing is easy' by steve martin.

i only regret that this article does not have attached to it a message board a la that at "elijah wood is v v gay" for idiots to show us that they don't get the joke. the funniest thing about it is that i have seen essentially these arguments advanced in all seriousness by people who say that their characters are NOT mary sues and so and so did TOO steal from them by using the name 'marissa' and their writing is SO very good and descriptive and besides who needs description anyway and besides mommy liked it.

Nothing will make your writing soar more than a memorable character. If there is a memorable character, the reader will keep going back to the book, picking it up, turning it over in his hands, hefting it, and tossing it into the air. Here is an example of the jazzy uplift that vivid characters can offer:

"Some guys were standing around when in came this guy."

You are now on your way to creating a memorable character. You have set him up as being a guy, and with that come all the reader's ideas of what a guy is. Soon you will liven your character by using an adjective:

"But this guy was no ordinary guy, he was a red guy."

This character, the red guy, has now popped into the reader's imagination. He is a full-blown person, with hopes and dreams, just like the reader. Especially if the reader is a red guy. Now you might want to give the character a trait. You can inform the reader of the character trait in one of two ways. First, simply say what that trait is--for example,"but this red guy was different from most red guys, this red guy liked frappés." The other is rooted in action--have the red guy walk up to a bar and order a frappé, as in:

"What'll you have, red guy?"

"I'll have a frappé."

Once you have mastered these two concepts, vivid character writing combined with adjectives, you are on your way to becoming the next Shakespeare's brother. And don't forget to copyright any ideas you have that might be original. You don't want to be caught standing by helplessly while your familiar "red guy" steps up to a bar in a frappé commercial.

(no subject)

am so tempted to go back and expand the list of the cabals of lotr and lotr rps [that i know about]... and name them.

i'm thinking beyond the fringe*. 'then there's banging your head against the solid rock--that's wot's known as the "bad method of finding coal." and there's scrabbling at the rock with your bare 'ands, wot's known as the "almost-as-bad method of finding the coal"...'

you know, i don't really want to be 'in' a fandom anymore.

i've missed this she-ra icon.

heeeere, karggo plot bunnies? ::looks around hopefully::

and on the subject of the title: the cliques, the amount of shit to keep up with, the... cliques... they're way too easy to go sour on. i'm more of an armchair observer.

for the record, you need a lot better evidence than wild speculation based on totally unsubstantiated rumor to launch a campaign against an actor the likes of the one being stirred up against sean astin. he won't care, presumably, if he's demonized right the hell out of slash fiction, but i'm sure the rumors, if untrue, would hurt him should he ever find out (in this fandom, unfortunately, that seems more likely than it might in some others). even saying rationally that there's not a high enough probability to fear that eventuality, the whole spirit of harmful actions based on unfounded accusations, and of representing rumor as fact--i find highly disturbing.