Chance Encounter and Other Fanfiction

Um, yes, I have not written for a day, or was it two? I seriously can’t remember. Not that there’s much happening in my life. I’ve been glued to computers, and criticizing bad writing on the net. Oh, and I plowed through five history books on the crusades while researching stuff for my essay. That in itself might not be a spectacular achievement, but I did it in an hour and a half. (No, I did not read them cover to cover)

This morning, while I was still woozy with sleep, I opened my inbox, and lo and behold, there was an email informing me that my story, Chance Encounter, had been nominated for the 2008 Middle Earth Fanfiction Awards. That was very exciting. For one, Chance Encounter was completed in 2007, and I hadn’t expected people to mention any more of it. Secondly, it’s a crossover. Those things hardly ever qualify as serious literature, even by fanfiction terms. And at the beginning, I thought the language was slightly forced. It matures over the chapters as I get the hang of it and develop my own writing style, which includes a lot of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ style jokes.

My greatest achievement with fanfiction, in my opinion, is that I managed to persuade people to watch the Director’s Cut of Kingdom of Heaven. (Watch it if you haven’t already. It’s a brilliant film, and the characters are very deep. You hardly get those anymore, at least not from Hollywood.)

Speaking of fanfiction, I have recently come to realize that the quality of writing has a huge range. The very worst and the very best, all gathered at one place. I consider myself somewhere amongst the average lot. There are a lot of brilliant writers who deserve to win the Pulitzer prize, and some who deserve the literary version of Razzies. Lately, I’ve taken to leaving criticism where it’s needed. I’ve often said that I hate analyzing literature, and here I am, doing it for the sake of doing it. Mostly, I stick with commenting on Mary Sues. Slash and incest…I can’t bear it. Some of the people who write fanfiction have something seriously wrong with their minds.

 

On the Block

My family looks at me blankly whenever I say I’m in a bad mood because of writer’s block. They don’t see why not being able to write or create should put anyone in a bad mood. When I told my mum, she just simply said ‘it’ll be fine tomorrow’, and sometimes it will be, but at other times, that isn’t the case. Writer’s block is a spiritual thing for me, and it really does affect my emotions, and even my physical state. On days when I have writer’s block, I wander around listlessly, not doing much at all. I’m restless, I can’t sleep, I get angry easily–those are all symptoms. The thing is, unlike physical discomfort, the rational side does not see writer’s block as something that should affect your mood, so most of the time, I don’t really know why I’m feeling so crap. I just do. At least when I’m feeling bad physically, I get sympathy. Writer’s block is generally dismissed as not much of a problem at all, but for those of us who write, we understand how frustrating it is.

Since Tuesday, I’ve been affected by writer’s block. I wrote a crap draft for my latest fanfic chapter. Usually, typing out crap drafts makes them decent, but not this time. I seem to be having an idea jam. There’s a rut in my story that  I can’t get out of. I’ve been trying. I’ve journaled, I’ve written here, I’ve written stuff, more drafts. It all sounds a bit forced. Perhaps I’ve been fixing my attention on the wrong thing, but if I know that where I’m looking is wrong, I don’t know what’s the right place to focus on. It’s very confusing. This is an essential part of the story. I just have to get it right or else the entire thing will not work out. I just hope that by the deadline tomorrow evening, time pressure will have forced my mind to churn out something acceptable.