hmpf | Coming soon: Meta

Lots of it, if I can pull myself together. (It's kinda tough for me, producing higher amounts of quality meta. I wouldn't want it too get too rambling, and I ramble a lot if I don't stop myself.) Currently thinking - and having half-written entries - about:

- fandom anxieties
- writing fanfic as a learning experience vs. writing it just for fun
- fanfic as emotional manipulation between consenting adults / the aesthetics of fanfic
- writing Methos (and other characters insufficiently defined in canon) 'in character'

Shame that what I really should be doing is preparing a paper for uni...

***

Speaking of meta, everyone should read the comic "Shade the Changing Man". 'Cause Shade's a guy from planet Meta. Seriously. (It's also, for the most part, a really good comic. Oh, and you can't buy it anywhere - it's a series from the nineties, never been traded except for the first six issues - but you can download it in a variety of places.)

Maybe I should make myself a Planet Meta icon or something.

***

Oh, and a writing update: 'Sometimes We Believe' is 150 words shorter now than it was, and quite a bit nastier. I ended up rewriting a lot more than simply cutting stuff out. I'll have another look at it in a week or so. 'Epilogue' has also been through its first round of rewriting, and is 180 words shorter now. Considering it was only half the length of SWB in the first place, that means there was a much higher removal ratio here than in the previous story. Too much purple prose, even for my own taste (and my tolerance for that kind of stuff is fairly high - I even believe there is such a thing as 'good kitsch'). I'm also trying to get the two different characters in it to actually *sound* different, to give them each their own voice - but that's proving difficult, to say the least. There isn't a lot to work with, the whole story, and especially the parts where the characters are still distinct personalities, being so short. For that matter, I'm also trying to make Methos sound a bit more like Methos, 'cause he doesn't at the moment. Then again, it's not a situation where he would be *likely* to sound much like his usual self. I dunno... I can see this rewrite taking a while. Maybe I'll do 'Names' first, 'cause that story is fairly recent (relatively speaking) and mostly just requires some dialogue fixing, IIRC.

(And, since I mentioned fan fiction as a learning experience above: dialogue really is one area I feel I have gotten a lot better in since I've been writing fanfic. It's still very difficult, though, what with my somewhat limited active knowledge of colloquial English. Not even living in Britain for ten months changed that significantly. I don't pick up spoken language as quickly as written language. Strange, that. Isn't it supposed to be the other way round for most people?)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think that depends on how you pick things up... If something's written then you are forced to deal with it since it's sat there staring at you, when it's spoken as long as you got the gist from what is said around it it's often easier to ignore it (or at least that's what I find, mostly because I'm lazy ;) )

are really good at *speaking* it (a lot better than I will ever be, in fact), and not that great at *writing* it. I know many people who spent a year abroad whose English sounds like a native speaker's.

Back in school, more than ten years ago now, we had a couple of people who had spent a year in the U.S. Needless to say, they spoke American English fluently, without any accent and with a perfect grasp of the vocabulary needed for any kind of normal conversation (if you learn it early enough in life, you'll pick up a foreign language really well, in most cases). Yet for the most part, they *still* couldn't write it as well as I could, even then. And I had only had six years of normal English classes at school, had never spent *any* time in an English-speaking country, and had read perhaps a couple of novels in English.

You would think that a year in the U.S. would trump reading a couple of novels... but apparently it didn't, not when it came to written expression. Not for me, anyway.

Similarly, after having spent almost a year in Britain, I *still* don't *speak* English as well as most people in a comparable situation, but, considering that my beta reader only found one or two semi-serious errors in the story I posted recently, I'd say I am able to write it pretty much at native-speaker level now. (Though errors still occur. I'm only human. *g*)

I also don't know a lot of colloquial *German*, come to think of it. It's as if spoken language just doesn't really enter my brain, somehow.

That's kinda what I meant, there are several different learning styles (you come across this kinda thing if you do courses in human-computer interaction), some people just respond better to information that they see than they do to oral cues.

I can't remember a thing if I only hear it, usually. That's why university is - mostly - a waste of time for me. Lectures just leave *no* trace on my memory *at all*. I wish our lecturers would provide some form of written version of their lectures, so I could read it instead...

I'm terrible at languages, but do much better with written than speaking. I can read and write a heck of a lot more French than I could understand and communicate in a conversation. I think it depends on how you learn.

can't wait to see more from you. and that uni paper? Well, we need to get you a house boy to handle such things.

But if it makes you feel any better, I'm horrid at english and it's my primary language ;) always embarassing for me to see a person'w work who's had to learn it as a second or third language write nicer (grammar and ounctuation wise) than me.

Does he look like Methos? Pleeeease? *eg*

Yay! Meta! I really look forward to reading this. I'm still plannning to reply to the recent email you sent me.

And I think your english is fantastic. But I do empathise with second-language anxiety. I had a lot more immersion in my second language than you did with english, and I'm still not really *comfortable* writing in it. Although some of that has to do with the specifics of the language, I can still sympathise with the worry. That and reassure you that your english is ace.

SK.

... is Welsh internet fandom! I'm sure my English wouldn't be where it is today if it weren't for eight years of nearly total immersion in English-language internet fandom.

I'm actually thinking in English most of the time nowadays. *Especially* in phases like now, when I'm really involved in LJ and forum discussions and reading and writing fanfic 'on the side'... It's like I've emigrated into an invisible English-speaking Country of One. *g*

It only sucks when it screws up my German. Which it does.

You're right! I'm sure one of the reasons I don't speak welsh so well is that there was never much media in welsh that I chose to interact with on my own. Welsh television is...surreal (funny, but that only gets you so far with the watching), and there just *aren't* many books, and, like...no science fiction ones. Except "Seros" which I read when I was twelve cos it was a kids' book and was dire.

Where is welsh internet fandom?! www.geiriadur.net <-- I insist that you write all your posts in welsh from now on. Here is a dictionary!

A nawr mae rhaid i fi mynd i'r gwely. Nos da.

SK.

*would like to see the meta, and also has Shade The Changing Man on her list to read after she finally finishes/catches up with Hellblazer*

:)

Interesting meta topics. I'm intrigued by "aesthetics of fanfic" and also "fanfic as emotional manipulation"...

Coming soon: Meta

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Yeah, well, but I know a lot more non-native speakers of English who...

Re: Yeah, well, but I know a lot more non-native speakers of English who...

It seems to be a bit extreme with me, though.

Re: Yeah, well, but I know a lot more non-native speakers of English who...

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House boy! Yay!

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