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bending_sickleYe gods. I've been sitting in the computer lab for the past near seven hours and most of that has been spent staring at the computer screen in boredom. It's probably taken me more than a good hour to read a single article, and there's still another pending. (Plus omg thinking! and planning!)
I don't know what's wrong with me today. Maybe I'm still dragging my feet at the whole, "holidays are over" concept, and at the sheer terror of what I've got lying in wait this semester. Going back to being a social leper isn't cool either. Well, no, not leper. Just that I don't interact with anyone all day, every day, unless it's an uberspecial day and I've actually made plans with someone. That'll be tomorrow (Elisa) and Wednesday (Lander), with a chat with Leslie also sometime next week.
Whatever. I'm so, so bored. I guess I could go outside and walkaboutand check out stores (goodbye to the Spanish opening hours! everything's closed now!) or something.
*needs lovin'* *gets coffee instead*
Also, at the risk of taxing y'all with my "omg I wrote shit!" moment, a word on the Green and Purple Argyle, Of All Things Experience, the idea, the writing and the reception, and what it all means to me.
The Conception: And I'm kind of hoping that the sheer WTF? of the moment would mean I would live through stealing said socks That, right there, gave me the image of a surprise Joker on the ground as someone grabbed at his ankle, aiming for the socks. It wasn't so much the coveting of the socks that struck me, but rather the difficulty of catching the Joker unawares. I joked about writing the image - calling it crack - but didn't actually take the thought seriously until I was taken seriously. Or at least joked along with. Then I couldn't get the image out of my head.
The Writing: I'd meant it to be crack. It was going to be the most honest-to-god crackiest crack thing this side of crackdom. And then I opened up the update page and wrote, without quite thinking, "A freak." Which the Joker's called in the film and don't take too kindly to it. And I couldn't turn back. I couldn't delete that line, even though it completely chucked out the crack. Hell, it even defined the pov, voice and everything.
(Although at some points, I was channeling my inner Firefly's Jayne voice, but with a bit more lip. In my head, the pov whirled between swearing like a cowboy one minute, an angry Englishman the next and a gangster just later. Oh, my head.)
And, as I mentioned in a comment, I wrote this whole thing pretty much on the fly, no idea where I was going, knowing only that at some point it was going to be about socks. I got stumped on a few bits, but for the most part it just flowed. But I still had my doubts. I mean, come on, I'd just thrown the crack out the window. The more I wrote, the harder I felt it would be to get back to the "omg sox!" part.
It wasn't until I got pov back behind the Joker (for the ankle!grabbing image) that I worked it out. I couldn't use the sock!coveting point - the derision for the Joker's clothes was too set. But that, the clothes!mocking, could be put to use instead. And because the Joker's still in charge of things, the casual kicking-off-of-the-shoe is his little taunt at pov, as is his (totally fake) relaxing of his back.
I realize now, after seeing larger photos of the scene, that the socks were fully visible the whole time (and also possibly not green-and-purple alone, or even argyle), but hey, what criminal checks out socks on the first look? (For that matter, I was a bit hesitant at the reveal of the scars being so late, because if the Joker'd been waltzing about and taunting the criminals before, wouldn't everyone, including pov, have seen them? But I excuse that by thinking how I never zoned in on the scars during the film either.)
Personally, I find the ending a bit weak and sudden, although some folks liked it. If I could write action, I might have carried on with a bit of fighting-through-the-bars (what we didn't see with Fat Hobbs**) and maybe some dialogue. (Or Joker!laugh, because I can't believe I never mentioned it.)
The bits I got stuck on, by the way, were mainly strictly wording:
- Sure, crazy, but that ain't 'cause of the lipstick - Initially I hadn't put the "acts all wrong", but thought this sentence came off a bit ambiguous. His make-up, while wierd, isn't what makes him stand out as crazy.
- Though wrong's all relative [...] - I extended this sentence, trying to fit it between the two sentences around it. Still feels choppy, damnit.
- apparently, says one mullet-head when the cops come the second time - Still not happy with this line. Originally, it'd meant to go The freak - goes by The Joker, apparently - went all quiet after that. but then there was the question of how pov suddenly knew this.
the coup de Graceland. - It was going to be all French. I have no idea why I stuck to Graceland, or even what that means.
That little flash of purple's the last of this green earth I see. - At the last minute I deleted a little "Ha!" after "green", figuring I shouldn't hammer the purple&green motif.
The bits I heavily referenced from the screencap, meaning I wrote after staring at the bugger for ages, are:
- it's easy to see what with his makeup being all smudged.
- He went all quiet after that.
- green vest all fixed up right. Hands on his lap like some piano-playing girl just waiting for the say-so.
- the little fucker smiles at me all half-grin psycho
- his overworked-whore lipstick smudge
Reception: I linked![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
capn_mactastic to it, and entangled_now followed. I did a little, "Omg, no wai, rly?" happy dance. Seriously, I'd just reread the comments over and over going, "Omg, they liked it, omg, omg, they liked it". Experience with sharing my fics, I have not. Experience receiving comments, I have less.
(Firefly fic All Things Copper (my first shared fic, crossposted to 2 comms) got two comments. Undertow (crossposted to 4 comms) got three. The drabble Insomnia got one. That was the grand total of my experience with reader's reactions for ages, until Kitty Attack gotfour five. Now, I'm not just dropping off numbers for the hell of it. I just want to stress how unused I am to having people actually read what I write, much less like it and say so.)
And then, because I've been working on opening up more on the internet-front (and hopefully on the real!world social front) I thought, "You know, there's comms out there... And even if it's not slash, or plot!full or whathaveyou, maybe someone wouldn't mind reading it. I mean, what's the point of writing if it people won't read it? And two people vouch that it isn't crap..." So I shared, whilst shakin' in my boots. I figured maaaaybe someone'd read it. Someone.
But omg, there's 17 comments!!! With exclamations and declarations of love and other awesome adjectives! When I got the first comment through![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
darkknightfic, I did a little dance because someone had actually been intrigued enough to click! Though I must admit, while I squeed over the enthusiastic comment, I was a bit hesitant to go \o/ because, well, I don't know whether such enthusiastic comments are common for the commentator. But then another comment came in, and another, and they liked it, and I just couldn't believe it. Some comments made me all wibbley and "gods I want to hug you" because they were just so nice! I'd never had such a reaction from readers.
So right now I'm still all a-squee with a heavy dose of "I can't believe it! Really?!?" I told one commentator that I read each comment as if it's the first, and this is still true. I just squee thinking, "Yes, this person liked it!" or "Hmm, that bit called their attention." But even I, with my "no wai!" squee, one can see that there's some patterns (see below).
Comments By Topic (Or, How To Get A Global Review):
Generalities:
This whole thing is just perfect.
dude, this was awesome!
I love it!
Nicely written!
Um, reeks of awesome? [...] this was very well done. [...] So anyway: yeah. You must keep writing, 'cuz this was pretty schweet.
I'm so in love with this. It's just so perfect! [...] Really, the best fic I've read in a while!
I loved this!
Love! [...] Great work!
That was the most amazing thing I've read. [...] This is my new favorite source of inspiration
Thank you for sharing.
haha uber wiked. ^_^
...and before I blather your eyeballs any further out of your skull, suffice to say: I dig it. x) Great job.
this was so freakin' great. [...] loved it.
Haha! Love it! [...] Great oneshot! Gotta love the Joker. :D
The POV:
Love the voice
Ee! I love the voice.
It's in such an interesting point of view.
Oh my, you really got inside that fucker mind.. The guy's machismo personality was so present in your language, all fleshed out.
Excellent voice, characterization (and metaphors, let's not forget those) and you give just enough of this original character to make him interesting but not too much to make him a Jerry-Sue
The different POV was really well done and refreshing
The voice is amazing, which, yeah, everyone is saying --but it really is. You got inside the character's mind.
That was certainly an unique point of view.
The voice was a little too typical punk for me, but I guess that's kind of the point. Typical crooks aren't up to the Joker's level.
The fact that your OC was hung up about the bench? Fantastic! Little details like that always do it for me.
love how to flesh out the OC, totally believable.
The voice of the narrator was great, and he never crossed the line into annoying-ness or gary stu-ness.
The Style and Language:
some fantastic imagery in here, and I love the descriptions of the Joker (and watching the Joker)
the language in this was perfect.
Love [...] the details.
Some of the lines were just breath-taking.
The way you word things, and all, it's just so cool!
And I did enjoy the imagery, particularly the bit about "Christine."
Still, machismo aside, the language and imagery were fantastic. A nice amount of slang.
The Ending:
The ending was very apt.
And that last line sent a little chill up my spine.
The Concept:
I love the idea of writing the Joker through another criminal's eyes.
I've never pondered what the other inmate-folk thought of the Joker when he was residing in Central, and this really put a lot in perspective.
Reading alternate perspectives of missing moments in the films is a personal favorite of mine, and I think you captured this one really well.
Odd Things People Picked Up On:
The comparisons he makes with the Joker and "Christine" are wrong but hilarious.
I love the comparisons to "Christine," even though I know how fucked up that is XD.
Very fitting that the Joker's overwhelming twistedness, the 'wrongness', would register even to those dispicable punks watching him there.
I love that even though it's totally from an OC's perspective, it's still totally Joker-centric.
Yay! Joker pawned!
What I liked was how well you captured the atmosphere of a crowded holding tank, even if it was just a little bit Hollywood, it was still VERY good.
and then you did a really good job describing the joker from an outsiders perspective--it was spot on
Favorite Lines:
his overworked-whore lipstick smudge I'm kind of in love with this line.
This line in particular: "a high-pitched rollercoaster of a talk, stopping when he oughta start like a chokin' engine" described his speech so well.
Where Do We Go From Here?: Althoughmisshquinzel wishes there were more, and bacchae23 says I "must keep on writing", I don't quite know what's going to happen to the muse. I hadn't planned to write the fic, and I certainly didn't try to control it whilst writing. (I think that's mainly why I'm so shocked at the reception.) My muse has been dead for so long, with my either not writing for months or writing out scenes like pulling teeth, that I don't know if I could ever get the spark back. You know how there's some things that you write, or do, and then stare at it thinking, "I couldn't possibly have done that. I can't ever possibly do it again." Yeah, I've got that going on.
...in conclusion, more crack!adddled chats with Mac are in order.
Links of the Day:
Dark Knight Is The Best Superhero Film Ever by Mike Scott, movie critic, The Times-Picayune
Popular Mechanics : The Myth Busters on the Internet (Lost Myths
windiain's Doctor Who/Discworld Fanfic: How to Successfully and Repeatedly Get Yourself into Dire Situations
lozenger8's Life on Mars Fanfic: Three Films He Never Saw (All the Way Through), Think Big Thoughts But Derive Small Pleasures, Five Times Ruth Forgave Sam
joonscribble's Torchwood Fanfic: Devil in the Details (Emails)
gaiafaye's TDK Fanfic: No, Sir, They're Not Aerodynamic (Crack)
fanficfanfare's TDK Fanfic: It Ends Tonight (Joker/Harvey)
polskipiwo's TDK Fanfic: Perverted Justice (Joker/Rachel, Harvey/Rachel)
psychorolute's TDK Fanfic: Joker vs. Sweeney Todd (with two version, slash and non)
bacchae23's TDK Fanfic: ΔS (Joker)
* Henry David Thoreau
** Named after the tiger of Calvin and Hobbs. Greaser's a variation of names I tried dedicated toursulav's gearworld. Somehow Gear didn't have the right ring.
I don't know what's wrong with me today. Maybe I'm still dragging my feet at the whole, "holidays are over" concept, and at the sheer terror of what I've got lying in wait this semester. Going back to being a social leper isn't cool either. Well, no, not leper. Just that I don't interact with anyone all day, every day, unless it's an uberspecial day and I've actually made plans with someone. That'll be tomorrow (Elisa) and Wednesday (Lander), with a chat with Leslie also sometime next week.
Whatever. I'm so, so bored. I guess I could go outside and walkabout
*needs lovin'* *gets coffee instead*
Also, at the risk of taxing y'all with my "omg I wrote shit!" moment, a word on the Green and Purple Argyle, Of All Things Experience, the idea, the writing and the reception, and what it all means to me.
The Conception: And I'm kind of hoping that the sheer WTF? of the moment would mean I would live through stealing said socks That, right there, gave me the image of a surprise Joker on the ground as someone grabbed at his ankle, aiming for the socks. It wasn't so much the coveting of the socks that struck me, but rather the difficulty of catching the Joker unawares. I joked about writing the image - calling it crack - but didn't actually take the thought seriously until I was taken seriously. Or at least joked along with. Then I couldn't get the image out of my head.
The Writing: I'd meant it to be crack. It was going to be the most honest-to-god crackiest crack thing this side of crackdom. And then I opened up the update page and wrote, without quite thinking, "A freak." Which the Joker's called in the film and don't take too kindly to it. And I couldn't turn back. I couldn't delete that line, even though it completely chucked out the crack. Hell, it even defined the pov, voice and everything.
(Although at some points, I was channeling my inner Firefly's Jayne voice, but with a bit more lip. In my head, the pov whirled between swearing like a cowboy one minute, an angry Englishman the next and a gangster just later. Oh, my head.)
And, as I mentioned in a comment, I wrote this whole thing pretty much on the fly, no idea where I was going, knowing only that at some point it was going to be about socks. I got stumped on a few bits, but for the most part it just flowed. But I still had my doubts. I mean, come on, I'd just thrown the crack out the window. The more I wrote, the harder I felt it would be to get back to the "omg sox!" part.
It wasn't until I got pov back behind the Joker (for the ankle!grabbing image) that I worked it out. I couldn't use the sock!coveting point - the derision for the Joker's clothes was too set. But that, the clothes!mocking, could be put to use instead. And because the Joker's still in charge of things, the casual kicking-off-of-the-shoe is his little taunt at pov, as is his (totally fake) relaxing of his back.
I realize now, after seeing larger photos of the scene, that the socks were fully visible the whole time (and also possibly not green-and-purple alone, or even argyle), but hey, what criminal checks out socks on the first look? (For that matter, I was a bit hesitant at the reveal of the scars being so late, because if the Joker'd been waltzing about and taunting the criminals before, wouldn't everyone, including pov, have seen them? But I excuse that by thinking how I never zoned in on the scars during the film either.)
Personally, I find the ending a bit weak and sudden, although some folks liked it. If I could write action, I might have carried on with a bit of fighting-through-the-bars (what we didn't see with Fat Hobbs**) and maybe some dialogue. (Or Joker!laugh, because I can't believe I never mentioned it.)
The bits I got stuck on, by the way, were mainly strictly wording:
- Sure, crazy, but that ain't 'cause of the lipstick - Initially I hadn't put the "acts all wrong", but thought this sentence came off a bit ambiguous. His make-up, while wierd, isn't what makes him stand out as crazy.
- Though wrong's all relative [...] - I extended this sentence, trying to fit it between the two sentences around it. Still feels choppy, damnit.
- apparently, says one mullet-head when the cops come the second time - Still not happy with this line. Originally, it'd meant to go The freak - goes by The Joker, apparently - went all quiet after that. but then there was the question of how pov suddenly knew this.
the coup de Graceland. - It was going to be all French. I have no idea why I stuck to Graceland, or even what that means.
That little flash of purple's the last of this green earth I see. - At the last minute I deleted a little "Ha!" after "green", figuring I shouldn't hammer the purple&green motif.
The bits I heavily referenced from the screencap, meaning I wrote after staring at the bugger for ages, are:
- it's easy to see what with his makeup being all smudged.
- He went all quiet after that.
- green vest all fixed up right. Hands on his lap like some piano-playing girl just waiting for the say-so.
- the little fucker smiles at me all half-grin psycho
- his overworked-whore lipstick smudge
Reception: I linked
capn_mactastic to it, and entangled_now followed. I did a little, "Omg, no wai, rly?" happy dance. Seriously, I'd just reread the comments over and over going, "Omg, they liked it, omg, omg, they liked it". Experience with sharing my fics, I have not. Experience receiving comments, I have less.(Firefly fic All Things Copper (my first shared fic, crossposted to 2 comms) got two comments. Undertow (crossposted to 4 comms) got three. The drabble Insomnia got one. That was the grand total of my experience with reader's reactions for ages, until Kitty Attack got
And then, because I've been working on opening up more on the internet-front (and hopefully on the real!world social front) I thought, "You know, there's comms out there... And even if it's not slash, or plot!full or whathaveyou, maybe someone wouldn't mind reading it. I mean, what's the point of writing if it people won't read it? And two people vouch that it isn't crap..." So I shared, whilst shakin' in my boots. I figured maaaaybe someone'd read it. Someone.
But omg, there's 17 comments!!! With exclamations and declarations of love and other awesome adjectives! When I got the first comment through
darkknightfic, I did a little dance because someone had actually been intrigued enough to click! Though I must admit, while I squeed over the enthusiastic comment, I was a bit hesitant to go \o/ because, well, I don't know whether such enthusiastic comments are common for the commentator. But then another comment came in, and another, and they liked it, and I just couldn't believe it. Some comments made me all wibbley and "gods I want to hug you" because they were just so nice! I'd never had such a reaction from readers. So right now I'm still all a-squee with a heavy dose of "I can't believe it! Really?!?" I told one commentator that I read each comment as if it's the first, and this is still true. I just squee thinking, "Yes, this person liked it!" or "Hmm, that bit called their attention." But even I, with my "no wai!" squee, one can see that there's some patterns (see below).
Comments By Topic (Or, How To Get A Global Review):
Generalities:
This whole thing is just perfect.
dude, this was awesome!
I love it!
Nicely written!
Um, reeks of awesome? [...] this was very well done. [...] So anyway: yeah. You must keep writing, 'cuz this was pretty schweet.
I'm so in love with this. It's just so perfect! [...] Really, the best fic I've read in a while!
I loved this!
Love! [...] Great work!
That was the most amazing thing I've read. [...] This is my new favorite source of inspiration
Thank you for sharing.
haha uber wiked. ^_^
...and before I blather your eyeballs any further out of your skull, suffice to say: I dig it. x) Great job.
this was so freakin' great. [...] loved it.
Haha! Love it! [...] Great oneshot! Gotta love the Joker. :D
The POV:
Love the voice
Ee! I love the voice.
It's in such an interesting point of view.
Oh my, you really got inside that fucker mind.. The guy's machismo personality was so present in your language, all fleshed out.
Excellent voice, characterization (and metaphors, let's not forget those) and you give just enough of this original character to make him interesting but not too much to make him a Jerry-Sue
The different POV was really well done and refreshing
The voice is amazing, which, yeah, everyone is saying --but it really is. You got inside the character's mind.
That was certainly an unique point of view.
The voice was a little too typical punk for me, but I guess that's kind of the point. Typical crooks aren't up to the Joker's level.
The fact that your OC was hung up about the bench? Fantastic! Little details like that always do it for me.
love how to flesh out the OC, totally believable.
The voice of the narrator was great, and he never crossed the line into annoying-ness or gary stu-ness.
The Style and Language:
some fantastic imagery in here, and I love the descriptions of the Joker (and watching the Joker)
the language in this was perfect.
Love [...] the details.
Some of the lines were just breath-taking.
The way you word things, and all, it's just so cool!
And I did enjoy the imagery, particularly the bit about "Christine."
Still, machismo aside, the language and imagery were fantastic. A nice amount of slang.
The Ending:
The ending was very apt.
And that last line sent a little chill up my spine.
The Concept:
I love the idea of writing the Joker through another criminal's eyes.
I've never pondered what the other inmate-folk thought of the Joker when he was residing in Central, and this really put a lot in perspective.
Reading alternate perspectives of missing moments in the films is a personal favorite of mine, and I think you captured this one really well.
Odd Things People Picked Up On:
The comparisons he makes with the Joker and "Christine" are wrong but hilarious.
I love the comparisons to "Christine," even though I know how fucked up that is XD.
Very fitting that the Joker's overwhelming twistedness, the 'wrongness', would register even to those dispicable punks watching him there.
I love that even though it's totally from an OC's perspective, it's still totally Joker-centric.
Yay! Joker pawned!
What I liked was how well you captured the atmosphere of a crowded holding tank, even if it was just a little bit Hollywood, it was still VERY good.
and then you did a really good job describing the joker from an outsiders perspective--it was spot on
Favorite Lines:
his overworked-whore lipstick smudge I'm kind of in love with this line.
This line in particular: "a high-pitched rollercoaster of a talk, stopping when he oughta start like a chokin' engine" described his speech so well.
Where Do We Go From Here?: Although
misshquinzel wishes there were more, and bacchae23 says I "must keep on writing", I don't quite know what's going to happen to the muse. I hadn't planned to write the fic, and I certainly didn't try to control it whilst writing. (I think that's mainly why I'm so shocked at the reception.) My muse has been dead for so long, with my either not writing for months or writing out scenes like pulling teeth, that I don't know if I could ever get the spark back. You know how there's some things that you write, or do, and then stare at it thinking, "I couldn't possibly have done that. I can't ever possibly do it again." Yeah, I've got that going on....in conclusion, more crack!adddled chats with Mac are in order.
Links of the Day:
Dark Knight Is The Best Superhero Film Ever by Mike Scott, movie critic, The Times-Picayune
Popular Mechanics : The Myth Busters on the Internet (Lost Myths
windiain's Doctor Who/Discworld Fanfic: How to Successfully and Repeatedly Get Yourself into Dire Situationslozenger8's Life on Mars Fanfic: Three Films He Never Saw (All the Way Through), Think Big Thoughts But Derive Small Pleasures, Five Times Ruth Forgave Samjoonscribble's Torchwood Fanfic: Devil in the Details (Emails)gaiafaye's TDK Fanfic: No, Sir, They're Not Aerodynamic (Crack)fanficfanfare's TDK Fanfic: It Ends Tonight (Joker/Harvey)polskipiwo's TDK Fanfic: Perverted Justice (Joker/Rachel, Harvey/Rachel)psychorolute's TDK Fanfic: Joker vs. Sweeney Todd (with two version, slash and non)bacchae23's TDK Fanfic: ΔS (Joker)* Henry David Thoreau
** Named after the tiger of Calvin and Hobbs. Greaser's a variation of names I tried dedicated to
ursulav's gearworld. Somehow Gear didn't have the right ring.
