Things!

1. I have got so much stuff cleared off my to-do list, yay! Starting tomorrow I will work on the other script I have. I only have to do 12 pages (about 3 hours) of it a day to make sure I have it done by the end of the month, which is when I said I would have it done, and considering how long I dicked about on the first one, I really want to have this done on time or even before.

2. Yesterday I had the most delicious chicken ever. Bruce took the bone out of a thigh, but left the skin on, then cut one side of the skin open so there was like a little pouch between meat and skin. He put goat cheese and fresh rosemary (after all our gardening woes, the one plant that has totally thrived has been the rosemary bush). The skin got all crackly and crispy and then there was yummy melted cheese inside and omg seriously, best chicken ever. *_*

3. I had no Saturday. I went to bed at 10am, slept til around 4. Got up, ate, ran errands, did a bit of stuff on my to-do list, and then around 8 decided to take a nap. I meant to just take a nap for a couple hours! I slept until around 6am. wtf, man.

4. Whatever was wrong with my computer seems to have magically cleared up by itself...? I've been up for a couple hours now and everything's loading fine...

Yuletide reviews 5: Babysitters' Club, Nancy Drew, Jane Eyre

I have been reading a ton of manga rather than fic, but meanwhile, I have a huge backlog of reviews to post, so... *posts*

Tough Legacy by sarajayechan 2/5
Babysitters' Club. 2000 words. After his breakup with Mary Anne, all Logan wants to do is forget the BSC. Fortunately, he's not alone.
( Eh, not that great. )

Opening Night by wisdomeagle 3/5
Babysitters' Club. 1000 words. Janine goes to one of Claudia's art exhibits.
( Enjoyable. )

Nancy Drew and the Case of the Fluctuating Sexuality by zoemargaret 3/5
Nancy Drew. 1200 words. When Nancy sees George kissing another girl, she can't get it out of her head.
( Cute. )

No Mortal Peril Needed by medie 3/5
Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew. 900 words. Nancy thinks it would be so easy to give in and get lost in themselves for a while.
( Cute. )

Get It Faster by plasticeneposes 3/5
Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew. 1100 words. Sometimes, Nancy thought it would be easier if she were just having an affair.
( Cute. )

A Case of You by ave_eva 3/5
Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew. 3600 words. Nancy, at a crossroads in her life, runs across an old friend.
( Enjoyable. )

Sanguine by tiscwslabmuz 2/5
Nancy Drew. 1600 words. Nancy, Bess, and George make a return visit to Red Gate Farm, to investigate an unusual crime.
( Left me really confused... )

Aube by tocomfortyou 2/5
Jane Eyre. 1200 words. Jane/Helen. "Careful," she cried as we fell to the grass, new spring buds blossoming around and within us. I stifled her cries with a hand, and then a mouth, and then the world grew pungent and heady and spun before me like a wild carriage ride.
( Eh...just really didn't do anything for me. )

Romance novel fanfic

Interesting post here on wanting more fic that is like a romance novel. One point that really struck me was this:

The thing is--minisinoo once said that a lot of fanfic fell under the genre, and I half agree, but the truth is, if we are, we suck at it very badly.

And I think it's that while a lot of fanfic is romance, it's not all "romance novel" romance, and part of that is because it's very hard to write romance novel romance and be IC, since the characters we're writing about are not romance novel heroines and heroes (especially the heroines part).

So people may write a romance between John and Rodney, say, but if they're trying to write about John and Rodney, and actually care about characterisation, of course it's not going to read like a romance novel, since that would mean they'd have to be slotted into those roles, automatically making it OOC. Of couse some people don't care about being in character, so they write it anyway, and obviously the OP and the people replying to the post don't care about it either (or don't always care about it), but it is something that many people see as important, so of course it's going to be seen as bad writing. I don't think romance novels in general are automatically bad writing, but they are dealing with original characters. As soon as you put John and Rodney in those roles, it automatically makes it bad, no matter how good the rest of the writing is.

So I think it's kind of ridiculous when people whine about how it shouldn't be seen as badfic. I don't think people should be ashamed to read and write it, but they need to suck it up and admit that it's ridiculously OOC and thus, yes, bad. (And if you're reading stuff with healing cocks, etc. then it's bad for more than just OOCness.) Love it because it's bad, love it despite its being bad, but don't complain that people call it bad!