The Ink-Pot and the Palette

Rec, did I say? Nay, a flailing, screaming, OMG SO BRILLIANT go read it imperative.

Le Silence de Roman by lyrstzha is a "fix-it" for a medieval French troubadour tale called Le Roman de Silence, The Romance of Silence, which treats of gender in a way that one doesn't really think of the Medievals as doing.

Here is a translation of the key part of the source material, which lyrstzha provides in the introductory notes:

They dressed Silence as a woman.
Lords, what more can I say?
Once he was called Silentius:
they removed the -us, added an -a,
and so he was called Silentia.
After Nature
had recovered her rights,
she spent the next three days refinishing
Silence's entire body, removing every trace
of anything that being a man had left there.

Lyrstzha tells another side of the story in iambic tetrameter, with wit, humor, and real love for the spirit of the source material. Here are arguably the crowning lines of her whole tale:

[Silence says]
"...Because it seemed to my mind
That I stood unique in kind.”
Merlin snorted at this cry;
He smiled and scoffed and rolled his eyes.
“So lament all under the sun!
Each thinking he's the only one
To bear strangeness as a brand
Like an exile in a far-flung land.
In truth there is no such creature
As one who's common in every feature.”

It's under 2000 words and a joy to read, especially aloud. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I've been reading a lot in the Teen Wolf fandom lately (a lot a lot). Here are three Sterek recs:

First, Last, and Always by sffan
Explicit rating
13,000 words

( Read more... )

this boy, half-destroyed by M_Leigh
Teen and up rating
25,600 words

( Read more... )

the blood blooms clean in you, ruby, also by M_Leigh
Teen and up rating
48,000 words

( Read more... )

In both of M_Leigh's stories there's a strong and cohesive plot thread involving Alphas and magic and all the most interesting things from canon. But what the author does better than the show's writers is make the story arise from the deeply flawed characters who inhabit it.

Both stories have that rare quality in fanfic: re-readability. I'm going back to re-read them tonight, in fact.

Sherlock Holmes and the Curious Case of the Howl in the Night (Sherlock BBC) by sideris is about 8000 words of funny, sexy, Sherlock-and-John first time (well, the first few times) fic with the most incredibly spot-on character voices I think I've seen so far in this fandom.

And it's touching, and emotionally resonant. The scene where Sherlock applies his powers of deduction to John's body is absolutely gorgeous:

Pressing his palms together, [Sherlock] taps the forefingers of both hands thoughtfully against his lips and murmurs, "Now, let me think. What does this body want?"

"I'd've thought that was obvious," John says, lifting his hips from the bed on the off-chance Sherlock needs a clue. "Even to a genius."

It's as if he hadn't even spoken. Sherlock is gazing at his body, as if everything he needs to know is written there, in ways far more obvious than John's straining dick could ever be. He runs a finger down the centre of John's chest, and follows the the line down, from Adam's apple to sternum to navel. "Soft," he says, pressing his finger lightly into the flesh at John's waist. "This is a man who likes to eat."

John cringes. He's put on weight since he was invalided home, but he didn't think it showed too badly. Until now. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

"I'm saying," Sherlock replies, eyes still glued to John's stomach, "it's obvious you're a man who has appetites."

It's a lovely read.

I just recorded the first section of my Podbang entry. Can't say too much about it, since it's secret and stuff, but here are some things I've worked to improve on from last time. I've already said a lot of this to pandarus, from whom I learned it, so thank you Fayjay!

Notes to Self:

• A simpler recording set up means a vastly greater likelihood that you will actually do some recording
• Slow the heck down
• Slow down some more
• Now take your time...
• ...and relax! Breathe!
• Use more of your vocal range
• No, you're not an actor, but what the hey, act a little--go on, you know you want to
• A nuanced reading is more important than a perfect recording--way more important
• Practice first

There are probably some more things, too, but it's really cool what a vast difference slowing down makes. There's more room to glance ahead and micro-plan the next line, more room to breathe and relax. I made far fewer mistakes than ever before, just by that one trick, and the mistakes I do make are MUCH easier to edit out because there will tend to be some space around them.

So, the plan for now is to record half an hour per evening, then practice-read the next half hour.

Then work on the next chapter of Restraint. It's just fic all the way down around here!

Every once in a while you come across a story that does just exactly what you turn to fanfic to have done; a story that exemplifies what fanfic is all about

Brothers by nwhepcat is that story. It fixes a major issue with its show (Supernatural, natch!), it explores with a light hand a relationship that doesn't get quite the canon airtime we'd like (Dean/Castiel--friendship); it provides THE answer to THE issue that canon is dancing around, it has perfect character voices, it's funny, and it makes you want to leap out of your chair and shout "Yessss!"

If you're a Supernatural fan at all, go read it. It's short. It's worksafe. It's absolutely a gem.

I went to Bev Martin the other day for help with my terribly slow writing. Bev's a hypnotherapist--one of my teachers--and a writer herself. I was sure she could help, and she did.

She used Clean Language, a questioning technique designed to guide the client to her own metaphor of change, completely uninfluenced by the practitioner. It's the inverse of standard hypnotherapy, which explicitly seeks to influence.

All the questions start with "And..." Each question feeds the client's own words back, and never makes assumptions, so the questions are odd and ungrammatical, and your rational mind gives up and hides.

( It went something like this: )

Change work without change is just self-indulgence. Any change so far? Well, I got up an hour early yesterday and wrote a missing character in a pivotal scene that I've been avoiding for a month. I think that counts.