All my fic-writing mojo from earlier this year has disappeared, oh woes. I still have plenty of ideas, but I'm entirely failing to get anything written - they're just staying in my head (the bastards). I get about four paragraphs in, and stop, and although I keep thinking about them, I never seem to continue. And then I let that one drop, because obviously it's going nowhere at the moment, and start a new one, and get four paragraphs in...

Focus. That seems to be what I'm lacking at the moment. Okay, new plan:

1) Write the 36_stratagems fic that's due next week, dammit.

2) Finish the companion fic to All To Myself, Alone which managed to sneak in past my lack of focus, and which is effectively finished but needs fleshing out (ahem).

3) Finish the Jack/Sara fic that is so nearly done, dammit, it just needs an ending and some polish.

4) Lather, rinse, repeat.

Okay... GO.

Signups are still going at jacksamfriends - we've had a great response so far! Signup deadline is Jan 28. Minimum 500 words... Go on...

Speaking of ficathons, oxoniensis has now opened Porn Battle VII: The Seven Deadly Sins. w00t! Hmm...

Watched Allegiance again last night. Because I can. I wonder how they decided who got to be the hero and shoot the bad guy in the end? I suppose Jacob got to have a scene where he counsels Jack about post-Abyss trauma. It tickled me how Bra'tac makes his eyes REALLY BIG when he's in the forest and straining all his senses to detect invisible bad guys. Also, I just stared at the scene where Jack is asking Jacob and Bra'tac to use their combined powers of awesomeness to keep the Jaffa and Tok'ra in line, and wondered how the film stock didn't spontaneously explode.

I haven't had a chance to use this icon in a while. I'm wondering whether signing up for a ficathon now is asking for trouble, or whether it'll kick my inspiration into gear. But I feel very bad - baaaaaaaaaaaaad - that I didn't finish two whole ficathons (apocalypse_kree and reel_sg1 – I'm so sorry, Jenn and Kellifer! I still have the stories wanting to be finished, but they may be a few years late! *is bad pepper*). I don't have any particular ficathon in mind. Well, except possibly the sjficathon, but that's not until 2009. Not that 2009 is far away...

My weekend? Busy. There was family visiting, and then dealing with banks and utility companies (WHY would they assume that A and I have a joint account? Asshats), and then a birthday party (yay socialising!), and then Sunday brunch (yay more socialising! Yay fried eggs!), shopping, tidying, trying to fix some furniture, making lemon meringue pie, and... other stuff, I forget now. Anyhow, I feel like I've been out of the office for ages.

OMG I need to finish knitting that scarf. And I need to buy Christmas presents. And cards. And I need to design cards for my mum. And I need to... phone my temp agency and ask what holiday I've accumulated. Srsly.

LJ, what is this you keep doing with formatting? Stoppit.

I'm feeling sorry for myself. I just burnt myself for the second time this weekend (well, third, if you count the tiny splash of hot fat when A was making Sunday brunch today). The one just now, when my hand brushed the oven shelf briefly whilst taking something out, really isn't that bad - but the one from yesterday, when a piece of superheated tomato stuck itself to my lip, is still uncomfortable a day later, has left blisters, and is going to make me look like I've dribbled lunch down my face for the next however-long-it-takes-to-heal. *headdesk*

It's not the end of the world, I know, but still... it's making me grumpy. It's bad enough that I can't seem to dress myself sensibly (or at least not like a giant egg) - now it seems I shouldn't be allowed to feed myself, either.

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Claims are now being taken for sg_fignewton 's Jack's Alpha-Bits, fic to be posted October 27. Despite feeling horrendously unable to write, of late, I've claimed P. I'm sure I can manage 100+ words in a month and a bit.

Speaking of ficathons, the apocalypse_kree  stories are starting to appear, woohoo! There's some really good stuff already been posted - I really, really love Nothing Gold Can Stay by bohemian_heart (and I'm not just saying that because it was one of my prompts *g*).

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I want to write something. I don't want to go to work tomorrow. And my lip and my hand HURT. *grumps*

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ETA: Oh! I nearly forgot - I watched Seth yesterday, and was reminded of niamaea 's Everybody's Crazy Jack fashion series. Why? Well...

Hamner: In fact, I'm to issue you with an emergency Special Agent credential. He's put you in charge of this operation.
Jack: Excellent! My first order of business: get me one of those cool jackets. Extra-large. Double XL if you've got it.

Jack, Jack, Jack... *shakes head sadly*

sg_fignewton is hosting a Gen Fic Day this coming Sunday - fics, commentfics, recs – anything, so long as it's gen. Hug a gen fan!

Next week I am going to see the Tutankhamun exhibition, woohoo! I can't wait. Canopic jars here I come.

And I'm in a thinky mood lately, and at the moment it's about advertising vs. information and discussion of interesting and relevant topics. What do you consider to be advertising, and where do you draw a line? If you were on an art history comm, say, and someone started talking about the paintings they did, copies of classic Impressionist paintings - would you think that was relevant to the comm? Or, how about if the artist did those paintings for a company that commercially produced artworks for sale - would you be more interested in hearing about their thoughts on Cézanne? Would you think the art history comm should allow the artist to describe their art, or post pictures of a commerically-for-sale collection of their and their colleagues' paintings and suggest that people might want to acquire them? Would you expect the artist to choose a post such as "Please talk about the work you produce here" as a place to post their comment, or would you think it was acceptable in any post that mentioned, say, Impressionist art? 

Just curious.

p.s. This is NOT about anyone on my flist! Or, for that matter, anyone on my friends' flists. 

 w00t! My sg1_by_handfic is finished and gone to beta! *does dance* In fact, for all I know, it's back already - I haven't got access to my email at work (bah). Now I just need to do my reel_sg1and my apocalypse_kreefics, and I'm golden! 

...Hmph. Okay, but it's progress. One down, two to go. The Labyrinth fic is about, oh, half finished, I'd say (knock on wood). The apocafic is anyone's guess. Oh, but go read surreallis's apocafic! OMG. *gets teary yet again*

HR here are useless. I have worked in HR, cretins: I know the processes, and I know my managers. Stop trying to bullshit me that it's difficult to get my timesheet authorised. It's not difficult; it's just that you're not trying, because the usual person who does it is on holiday. Keep on doing that, and I won't get paid this week. My empathy as an ex-HR person myself only extends so far. If it's not sorted by mid-afternoon, I'm going to stand behind you and glare at the backs of your heads until you get it done, m'kay? And I have a killer glare. Srsly.

And woo and yay, for trustno1_reduxis up and running, and there is a very funny recap of the first X-Files episode up for discussion. "That's why they put the I in FBI." *hearts*

Oh, and thinking of such, there's another AIM chat this Friday for redial_the_gate- rewatching Hathor. After that, there won't be one for about a month (next one up is, I think, TBFTGOG - wow, are we really that far through already?). 

 
ETA: Word's thesaurus suggestion for a search on 'insight'? 'Nearby'. FFS.

What did I need to do today, seeing as I had a whole afternoon all to myself? Apocafic, that's a given; reel_sg1 fic, yes, that's now late; sg1_by_hand, yes, I could actually get that in on time (and no, it will not contain a trampoline - that's just dangerous, you guys!). I could also have written some more of my Valentines WIP that's been going on for a year or more now, or worked on one of those fics that I posted snippets of, some time back, and asked for votes on what I should work on next. I still haven't written that Jack and Daniel snark piece for lady_draco2005; I'd quite like to write one of the backup fics for the sjficathon (ooh, those prompts...), and I could even, god forbid, have written some more fic for jack_built.

What did I not need to do? Spend the afternoon making a new header for my lj, and reorganising the colour scheme around that new header, that's what.

But it was fun to play with the pritty pictures. Oh well. I still have this evening.

I feel like I've not been around much lately. It's not exactly true; I have been lurking, and posting comments in other people's journals, but I've been much less verbose in my own lj. Lack of fannish energy at the moment. Anything I do have, I'm trying to concentrate it in my reel_sg1  fic, which I have a hope of finishing on time, despite the fact that it's surprisingly long. I think that's because I've kind of got a structure there to work from - i.e. the film for which I'm doing the crossover.



That's my brain for today.

 

So, today was nice at work - all permanent staff were off on a get-together, and me being a temp, I stayed behind and footled around on the computer. I didn't have anything much to do (it's a quiet time of year for us), so I wrote 2000 words of my reel_sg1  fic. Stargate crossover with Labyrinth. Glee, I tell you. Jack is not amused by goblins. Teal'c is not intimidated by the Goblin King. Daniel is discussing the history of labyrinths. Sam is trying to work out whether Jareth is using beam technology. Jareth is getting slightly irked that they're not playing along. Glee!

I've got nearly 3000 words in total, so far, and they've only just got to the bit where the doorway is hidden in the wall, though. Oops...

And I need to put that on hold and go finish my (relaunched with a new prompt) apocafic, so that I can justify writing pirate fic International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Wednesday. Heck. Going to be busy tonight.

There's something wrong with me. Yes, I have signed up for sg1_by_hand. WHAT HAVE I DONE???? But I said I would, and then I havered, and then I looked at the prompts, and they're really good, and...

(There's still time for other people to sign up, although prompt submission has closed - you have until 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time today.)

Also, I need to finish my reel_sg1fic (deadline Sept 30, but post anytime before then), and, of course, the apocafic, which is making me feel like I'm in some kind of horrible Ancient Greek legend. 

synecdochicis having an anonymous fandom love meme, which reminds me very much of those secret Valentines we used to send in school (in a nice way). Several of my flist are (deservedly) mentioned, go check it out. And... *gets teary, hugs everyone* Love you guys.

(I'm all about the brackets lately. Also, I love the Aberystwyth books by Malcolm Pryce. Currently reading The Unbearable Lightness Of Being In Aberystwyth. Stovepipe hats!)

aurora_novarum, you're a star! Your pep talk seems to have done the trick – I'm tentatively hopeful that I might actually finish this story and reclaim my soul bit. And working out the season really did help. Thank you ever so much. You might have saved my sanity. *g*

Oh, I held out, but I can resist no longer...


The state of my apocalypse

Current wordcount: 365 (!!!)
Total wordcount of versions written and then discarded: Circa 15,000+ (*headdesk*) 
Number of times I've had an epiphany of 'This is it! I've got it at last!': About once every two weeks
Number of complete restarts from the beginning: 8
Bits I really like that aren't going to make the final cut: Vast swathes
Number of plans drawn up: 5
Number of plans I usually draw up for a fic: 0
Number of changes to how the world ended: 4 (Replicators, Ori, Goa'uld attack, never discovered) 
Originality of ideas: 3%
Number of ficathons I've tried to write this for: 2 
Length of playlist for writing this fic to: 3.6 hrs, before my iPod died and took with it the playlist.
Certainty I have of finishing this time: 58% (amber alert)
Likelihood of me turning into Inspector Clouseau's boss or Robert Lindsey in GBH before this fic is done: High (already got the eye-twitch) 
Pirates: 4  5  galactic network of  currently none
Reason this fic is making me so nuts: I have no idea

"Pepper," they will say, "have you finished your apocalypse_kree  ficathon piece?"

"Yes," I will reply.

Ack. apocalypse_kree stories are starting to go up (not to mention all those delicious Sam/Jack stories already posted for the sjficathon).

Must. Not. Read. Yet.

Must. Write. Own. Apocafic.

I'm back to hating my own apocafic, unfortunately, and really, really wanting to start over again. Theoretically, I could easily write 1,000 words as a new thing, but I don't want to quit the story I am writing - partly because I do actually love the parts of it that are still in my head, and partly because I don't want to write something throw-away for this ficathon.

But then again, often when I do stop trying to force myself to write a story that just isn't working, and write something completely new, it turns out to be a much better thing.

Aaaaaaaargh.

On a completely other note: For those in the Northern hemisphere, the Perseid meteorite shower should be at it's most visible tonight (barring clouds). NASA estimate 1 to 2 'shooting stars' per minute at the shower's height (the very early hours of Monday morning). Should be visible to the naked eye (well, the naked eye with glasses, in my case, but you know what I mean). I'm going to go look, and yes, I'm going to be thinking of A Hundred Days. :)

You know what? I'm blaming my keyboards. THAT'S why my apocafic has died a death. My keyboards - both at home and at work.

Stay with me on this. 

See, I find the smallest things make it easier or harder for me to write. Cutting my nails, that's another one - whenever I cut my nails, I find myself suddenly typing a lot more. If I have long nails, I type less. I'm like some kind of reverse Sampson, only with nails, and writing fanfic rather than pulling down temples. Um. And it's odd, because I don't notice my nails getting in the way or anything, when they're long - but when they're short, typing is suddenly that much more tappytappytappythisiseasyandIcanhitallthekeyswithoutahiccup...

So, my inability to write. It's not the weather - because it's not that hot, neither is it that cold. It's just... meh. It's like un-weather (now the rains have stopped trying to drown half the country).  It's not lack of time, now I've posted the CotG thing (wow, that went well!), and done the AIM thing, and had the holiday, and come back to work (which is keeping me busy and productive, but not in a stressful way - rather, it's pretty joyful to feel useful at work, for once). It's not other stresses - finances okay, check; (mostly) good relationship, check; keeping active, check; eating sensibly, check; getting enough sleep, check... It's not the lack of inspiration, either - I keep thinking of bits and twists and lines and changes and stuff that needs to get the hell out of my head and onto a page.

So, why can't I write this damn fic, for the rapidly-looming deadline (Aug 12-18 OMG)? Clearly it's the keyboards. On the work one, I have to press just that slight bit harder than I find natural, otherwise some of the keys stick. It's fine for work - meaning there's no excuse to requisition a new one. The one at home is... it's too.. it's... grah. 

Dammit, surrealphantastis going to end up with a piece of my soul in a jar on her desk, I just know it. (Is anyone else picturing that like the dreams in jars in the BFG, or is it just me?)