FanaticalWriter

Call me cynical, but I don't expect "fairness," per se in a poll. Any time people vote on something, there's always a good chance that a few people will cheat. Or even that many people will cheat. Sometimes you can prove it and do something about it, and sometimes you can't. Bottom line, life isn't fair, and there are much more important things to get worked up about than an online poll. Now, is that to say I'm not suspicious and a bit irritated about this whole fiasco? Nope. I am. But I have much more important things to stress and worry about than this. All of that being said, what I do expect from an event, whatever its outcome, is that the people associated with running it act in a professional manner, whatever their own personal position is. A simple statement that eonline saw no credible evidence of cheating should have sufficed, regardless of any hate she might have been receiving from any BAs. Instead,Kristen felt the need to make snarky, passive-aggressive remarks toward the losing fandom, which can easily be interpreted as bias, even if it isn't.

I was wondering if anyone over here had seen that tweet yet! #TrueMath indeed! Even if "hundreds of thousands" of people were voting in the poll, there's no guarantee they would all, or even mostly, be voting for Steroline. Way to let your bias show, Kristen. Not to mention acting like a passive-aggressive jerk in the process, too...

Olicity and Captain Swan are my favorite ships from my two favorite shows. I just couldn't bring myself to vote for one over the other, especially not now that this has turned into some tug-of-war drama fest. No matter which one wins, or if neither of them wins, I'm still going to enjoy them both just as much, so I just can't see letting myself get worked up about it. I'm already worked up enough over my Wonderland ship.

Yes, I'm the author of WDC. Seems I've finally been outed, haha. I'm working on the next chapter of WDC in tandem with some other fics that I've had update requests for, so it's a matter of which fic cooperates and writes itself the fastest, so to speak, as to what will get posted first.

Do you know for certain that it's abandoned? I'd pretty much given up on a fic that I discovered right when I first started reading CS fanfic...the author hadn't updated in almost a year...and then one day I was surprised to see an update in my inbox! Made my day! Apparently she was away at school most of the year, and really busy, so she didn't have much time for updates. I know that's probably the exception to the rule, but still...

Are they just going after fics that are too graphic in nature, or what? Or any fic with sex in it at all? If it's the latter, what really is the point of having an M rating on the site? If it's the former...tastes on "graphic" can be somewhat subjective, and sadly I don't think FF net admins take the time to ascertain whether such an accusation is warranted or not. And honestly, I can't recall reading any fics in the fandom that are worse than any of the edgier romance authors published these days. Hardly anything that would qualify for MA masquerading as an M. But maybe my idea of what constitutes an MA is different than someone else's. And that's the problem, really. And FF net certainly hasn't gone out of its way to clarify the matter, either. Update on the possible plagiarism situation: it's possibly a false alarm. I talked to the person who was worried about it, and I think it's possible she may have read Neighborly Affection at one point, forgot about it, and then it sounded super familiar to her when she found it again, maybe. Couple that with the fact that I also write a HP/CS crossover and maybe that's where the confusion came from, possibly, if she got them mixed together in her head (although, I don't see how...to me they are very different stories). I definitely didn't find anything by googling a line or two from that fic, except...my own story! Thankfully. I'm going to PM her again and see if maybe she just got confused.

Speaking of plagiarism, one of my reviewers informed me that my Captain Swan fanfiction, Neighborly Affection, looks like it was plagiarized as a Harry Potter fanfic. I PMed back to ask for more information, such as username, etc, since my preliminary searches aren't showing anything, but I suppose I was also working under the assumption that it was a HP/CS crossover, which might not be the case. If any of you have seen anything like my story, Neighborly Affection, under another username, please let me know. I have enough other stuff going on in my life to stress me out, and I really don't want to deal with this. But deal with it I will, if I have to. Plagiarists disgust me. A writer works his/her tail off writing a story, and someone else comes along and takes the credit for all of that work. That's just incredibly low. I guess some people are so desperate for attention that they will stoop to anything, I don't know.

Of course nothing online is completely private (hello there, NSA), and sure people lose personal stuff sometimes. I'm not really arguing that. I'm just saying it's unlikely anyone would randomly go looking to see if she writes fanfic, without reason to, so on the surface, it seems like a weird reason to delete things without warning. In all reality, something in her contract may have given her food reason to worry and do so, I don't know. And now I'm going to stop talking about this, because I'm probably coming across as a suspicious meanie, and that's not my intent all. It's just that it happened without warning--again--and I guess I'm trying to make sense of things in my own head, so I can move on, because that's how I tend to react to stuff like this, but really it's just one of those things you'll never have neat little answers for. Oh well, that's life.

I know what she does. And while it's possible her contract changed and there's new language in there that gave her cause for concern, or something, I'm still not sure how anyone would know about her fanfic, unless she talks about it, or she's been working on it during work hours. Why would they think to look for anything otherwise, much less do the necessary digging to find her pen name, fics, etc.? It just doesn't make logical sense to me. But then, I don't know the real situation, either. I just hope no one has unnecessarily scared her out of writing fanfic for flimsy reasons, or because someone is overstepping their bounds, you know?

But how would anyone even know, unless she's advertising the fact that she writes it, or she's working on it during work hours? Now, I can see it mattering if one is being professionally published, and publishers want stuff pulled so there's no appearance of infringement, but some publishers are starting to relax on that a bit, as long as you're not A)trying to profit from fanfic, and B) writing under a pen name that's not connected to your published name. But again, it depends on the publisher. For what it's worth, I never thought anything gp28 wrote would qualify as steamy, but I haven't kept up with her newer stuff, either. And again, who cares if it was? It's not anyone else's business, unless it's somehow interfering with her job. What people do on their own time is their own business (with obvious exceptions of course).

Jeez. Again? I feel bad for her if it's stressing her out, or if she's feeling pressured, because goodness knows I'm there right now with my own writing, and stuff going on in my personal life is only fueling that, but some warning or a notice would be nice before this sort of thing happens. Not required or owed by any means, but still nice, you know--instead of just wiping things out of existence without warning? Kind of glad I didn't let myself get invested much in her writing this time around. Once burned, twice shy, and all of that. But at least she didn't leave Tumblr this time, so she's still around to talk to, thankfully.

There's also the group, The Jolly Writers, that one of my friends from Tumblr started. The focus of this group is more on improving writing, getting help with problematic scenes, and getting feedback. I'll probably be helping out now and then, as time and necessity allow.

You have much better sense than I do, Rumsy. I'm drowning in writing, because I let my workaholic little self get carried away. :/ I need to learn to say "no" to myself and put more project ideas in a file for later.

Yes, Sharky, it was. I didn't realize anyone else's work had been plagiarized around that time, too. Yikes! Glad everything got straightened out all right for you guys, but it sucks that it happened at all. And I, too, have found the community to be very helpful and supportive for the most part, especially my buddies on Tumblr.

That's pretty much how I post my fics, and no one has complained to me yet. ;) Honestly, one of my Tumblr buddies had some fic of hers plagiarized and posted on FF .net. I know a lot of people like to keep their fic on Tumblr, but it just seems to easy to steal someone's work that way, and I haven't figured out how to tinker with the code on my blog to alter my template, so I post mine on FF .net, where they have to really work more at it to take something of mine. I'm gradually putting more of my stuff on Ao3, but not everything has been been added to there yet. I think the only writing I haven't added off-site from Tumblr are some drabbles and a multi-chapter for a crackship.

I agree. It's a shame Rose McIver is busy with other projects at the moment--not that I begrudge her other work! It's just that...given that Tinkerbell sort of set Regina on this course, re: Robin Hood, Tinkerbell's absence in the midst of this Marian/Robin/Regina drama is going to feel glaring. At least to me. Because even though she was mad at Regina for not meeting Robin before, and thus causing Tink to lose her wings, she still seemed invested in the idea of Regina embracing her potential happiness with Robin after they met again. Therefore, when it all hits the fan, as it must...you would think Tinkerbell would be around, logically. And that's why it's going to be odd when she isn't. Hmm. I would like to see more of Archie again, and this could be a way to bring him in, but somehow I doubt that's the direction the writers will take. After all, why have a reasonable, calm third party get involved and try to talk sense into Regina, when they can put Emma and her loved ones directly into the line of fire and drum up more drama for poor wittle Regina that way? *sigh*

Ao3 does let you use a pen name, but it still shows the original name in parentheses next to the pseudonym, at least in my experience. I personally don't find it to be a bad thing, since it helps connect my FF.net and Tumblr names both with my AO3 account, but if someone wanted to truly be anonymous with a work, that might not be the route to take. Maybe someone who is more familiar with AO3 will know if there's a way to turn that off or something; I'm still in the process of gradually transferring fics over to there.

Ugh, blah. I know that's part of acting. That sounded clueless and stupid, and that's not what I meant. I posted too late at night, and I think only half of my reply made it into the post. :P What I meant to say was something along the lines of Lana's notes and acting decisions being the reason we see such discrepancy between where the plot wants to take Regina, re: redemption, and our own willingness to buy into it--or not. But again, I think only half of my thoughts made it into the post. No more posting in the wee hours of the morning for me! ;) I'm not really that stupid. I hope. Regarding Regina's redemption, I think it's a shame how poorly they have handled it. I mean, if they want to redeem her, fine. That's all well and good. But in order to redeem a character that has been portrayed as so evil and heinous, you have to do it in a way that is organic to the story in order to be realistic. And the only way to make it at all organic rather than contrived, in my opinion, is to A) make it gradual, and B) make it relatively consistent. The writers have ignored both A and B in favor of rushing Regina's redemption arc and making her so inconsistent with it that viewers can't help but feel a bit like they're on the wrong end of a yo-yo. (Or maybe that's just me.) It just doesn't work. It's not realistic. And yes, this is a fantasy show, but speaking as a fantasy writer, even the most fantastical stories and elements of a tale have to be grounded with realistic characters that behave in realistic ways. Otherwise people just won't buy it, no matter how you try to dress it up. And I think that's the crux of the problem with Regina's redemption arc: it simply isn't realistic that someone could behave so heinously, much less for so many years, and have people trust and forgive her in such a short span of time, given how much she's yanked them around or tried to kill them. Heck, in real life, I doubt many would forgive her at all. But the worst part is that Regina has no regrets for anything she has done. None. And that pretty much invalidates any attempts the writers have made at redeeming her, no matter how sloppy. And that's the heart of the problem right there.

That's a good question. I remember Lana saying once that she writes extensive notes to herself on her scripts, regarding her character. Maybe those notes influence a lot of Regina's non-verbal reactions.

Agreed. I've met rabid, Bad Apple shippers and stans in every corner of the OUAT, including my own Captain Swan fandom. But I tend to unfollow and otherwise ignore them when I can, for the most part. And I feel for the Swan Queen shippers, especially the nice ones, I really do. I know what it's like to really love a pairing from a show or book, but the writers just don't want to go that direction and it gets sunk. It sucks. But there comes a time when you need to stop trying to push water uphill and accept things in canon as they are, and either stick with the story or move on to something else. Either way, nothing stops you from continuing to ship it via fanfiction if you desire. Most of all, I just wish the bad apple fans would realize that none of the actors or actresses on OUAT are responsible for what is or what isn't being written into the show and cease the harassment about it, whether it's at a con, on twitter, facebook, or wherever. It is not okay!

Tell you what. I will trade our rain for the sun and heat some of your are getting. Rain is good and all, it helps my garden grow, but we've had a lot of rain in the past two or three weeks, and I'm getting a bit tired of that. Plus, my kids are restless from not being able to go outdoors to play.

Hello! None of you know me from TWoP, because I discovered it a short time before it was shut down, and therefore never bothered registering there. But I did lurk quite a bit for the short time I was able, and I found a lot of the discussion quite interesting. I'm looking forward to being able to participate in some of it, this time around.