Life! (not immortality)

Sunday's New York Times included a powerful essay titled "How to Write About Trauma" by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh.

The essay is not in the least fannish. I'm mentioning it here because I think it's potently resonant for writers, for storytellers, which many of us are, in conveying how and why "sometimes trauma alone does not a story make," and that a writer should know, about the trauma in her story, "what was significant about this experience," and should consider how to "make it emblematic of something larger" to thus "turn it into a story that someone would want to read."

However, the essay may be triggery. If that concerns you, skip it and skip the rest of this paragraph, please. This resonant lesson for storytellers comes with "trauma" indeed, and with monsters, and with gruesome silence. Lessons for all, not only for writers. As the author reveals bluntly in the first sentence — not the last, note; it's the exposition, not the climax, of the essay; a point is made about structuring and storytelling, from non-fiction to fiction — as a small child, the author was raped.

It seems that many pinch hits are needed in the Rarewomen ficathon game this year. At this time, two have not yet been claimed:

• #19 - Samurai Flamenco, Revolutionary Girl Utena, or Neon Genesis Evangelion
• #20 - In the Flesh, Warm Bodies, Supernatural, Grimm, or Teen Wolf

If you're interested in fulfilling one, tell the mod. At this point, she's essentially letting the volunteers set their own deadlines.

I'm looking forward to getting to read many of the stories come the reveal! (Although if they do reveal on time, I'm afraid that I won't get to read most promptly; I have other obligations this weekend.)

I don't know whether I managed to write well, myself, but I've loved my characters well, I promise. :-)

My own fkficfest/fkficfest story, "Closer to the Renaissance," revealed today. I'd like to thank Batdina for the prompt; Skieswideopen, Chelseagirl and a few others for brainstorming with me; and Skieswideopen, Sholio and Natmerc for beta-reading! (Thanks also to Nick and Janette for coming through in the end.)

And I'd like to encourage everyone to drop by the fest and look around! You're sure to find a story to your taste! This year, we have every major character (except Tracy and Reese, admittedly) and an assortment of canonical minor characters. We have drama, humor, tragedy! History, mystery, fantasy! Romance and gen!

If you didn't mind spoilers, oh! could I ever bend your ear about the neat new ideas driving this year's tales! Hmmmm. Maybe I will. I did in a comment on last_writes, so I could even just copy and paste. Hmmmm. Mind the cut, now! ( MAJOR SPOILER TEASES )

Please do come by the fest! Feed your friendly neighborhood FK fanfic authors!

A wretched virus wrested away my holiday weekend, knocking me flat, and has continued snatching my precious non-work hours from their rightful summer devotion to fkficfest/fkficfest ever since. In other words, while I have read four non-fiction books and watched three documentaries relevant to my prompt, and rewatched first-season twice — first-season is my happy place — since receiving my match, I still don't yet have a blessed word of actual story. Yikes! I try to trim down the idea in my imagination for every day I lose to this dratted plague.

However, I have achieved a tentative title! Not much of an accomplishment, I know — three words toward my thousand? ;-) — but it cheers me. Titles shape stories, for me, every time I open and save and see a file. Stories almost always go better when I know the title in advance. (So there, virus!)

Those of you writing for FKFicFest this time, how are your stories going? Those of you not writing, have you considered beta-reading (DW/LJ)?

We have not yet reached that part of October where I will have enough time to play fandom regularly again, but I believe that I've caught up on all of your October's LJ/DW posts to date... and there's nary a drop of FK out there.  Did I miss any?  (Besides that I completely missed that spook_me, the annual multifandom Halloween ficathon, is well past underway! I missed that in September.)  Just a quiet month so far.

Unrelatedly, I have been pondering some advice from leela_cat, and I've decided to take it.  I doubt anyone has noticed, but I have accumulated perhaps a dozen assorted here-and-there stories — going back two years, at least — written for various deadline-driven ficathon games, but then left to moulder on the vine at whatever venue held the game, not moving them on to fkfic-l, my own fansite, or the AO3 (if the game wasn't held on the AO3 to begin with).  In each case, the deadline came all too soon, and, unsatisfied with the result for whatever reason, I determined to rewrite... but never did.  (Mostly, I was unable to find anyone to chew them over with, to tear them apart and put them back together more strongly in conversation, and reignite their inspirational fires. I write much better on a discursive foundation!)  So what was Leela's advice?  Post.  Unless a missing scene is clamoring to be written, let it go; fold each story neatly and tuck it away.  Archive as-is, get these tales off my imagination's plate, and make room for something new.

Yes, I think that I will do that... as soon as we reach that time when I have some time. :-)