Updates and pimpage

[gwyn]

So I took the tests yesterday, and thank you to everyone who sent me White Fawn vibes. It was a bit challenging -- 90 minutes from the phone call and I had to try to understand some of the stranger instructions, while not wasting time on the instructions, so that I could do these as well as possible. The copyediting test was fairly easy-breezy, I can do that in my sleep, really, though I must have looked at the word hemorrhage for a full five minutes trying to remember how it was spelled. And then there was a series of three lines that had no errors, or at least, errors I would correct (stylistically, someone else may have thought they were wrong, but as I say, I preach tolerance), so I was freaked out because the rest of it had at least one error per line and I felt there was a trick buried in there. The second part of the test was really hard, two paragraph-long pieces involving a great deal of tech information, and I noticed right away things such as starting out with the 24-hour clock and ending with the am/pm clock, etc., but I think a lot of it was not just how I would rewrite them (they were pretty bad) for sense, though mostly how I would query the writers, and what I'd query about. The third part is the one that kills everyone, I guess -- a 1,500 word article they want down to 300, less technical info and you have to write a headline, intro, and ending. I'm pretty sure mine sucks dead rats through a straw, but it was the best I could do in the time allotted.

Unfortunately, it's really the tests she's using to distinguish candidates. She's liked everyone she's spoken with, so the only thing that's really helping her decide is the tests. I feel so much pressure -- despite the horrid commute this would entail, I want this so bad, and I just know from experience that when I want something this much, I won't get it. Yet I'm somehow too starry-eyed to learn from my lifetime experience of failure.

So anyway, that puts me in need of fun stuff, and I wanted to pimp a fantastic story in progress from Cyn. Some of you may remember (or probably not) that I'm working on a fic with Dana, the insane slayer from Damage, and Spike, but Cyn's already deep into a wonderful post-LA-apocalypse story called Ronin with Spike, Andrew, and Dana that's just gorgeous and so ringing my chimes. She's posting parts at Tea at the Ford, where the first three parts are, but there's a new section of part three that isn't up yet, and you can find all parts at her lj, jwaneeta. Her Andrew is screamingly, laugh out loud, annoyingly funny and yet sweet and good at the same time, and her Spike is just... this is one of those rare perfect Spikes I treasure in fanfic so much. And Dana so far is just as shattered as in the episode. I'm really loving this -- go read her LJ and please leave comments and encourage her to keep going. It's wonderful, wonderful.

Comments

[juliaabra.livejournal.com]

gwyn:
i have all my fingers and toes crossed for you. it may make it hard to walk and type, but, for you, it's worth it!
*hugs*
j

[juliaabra.livejournal.com]

wow! did you see that i used "it" four times in a sentence only 15 words long? do you think that's some sort of record?

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a pretty intense test, but I bet you did great. Still sending out those White Fawn vibes!

[wolffire.livejournal.com]

1500 words to 300 in less than 90 minutes is tough even if you had nothing else to do! That sort of whittling editing is not easy to do without butchering voice/tone and so forth.

I'm still sending you good vibes. May you get a call-back for the interview or the job!

[elinora.livejournal.com]

Good luck! Sending good vibes your way. (((((((*)))))))

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Those sound like really rough tests, so congrats for even finishing them. They'd be crazy to miss out on hiring you. Continued White Fawn vibes and *hugs*!

Thanks...

[emmarytz.livejournal.com]

for "sucks dead rats through a straw." That is an expression that may get me through the day and I just hope I can manage to make it mine long-term. I'm sure you did a fabu job on the tests and I hope that, having got the dream job, you find it all that you hoped. -em

Ronin

[dkfeatherstone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. I am so enjoying the story.

Sounds like you did great with the tests. I can hardly wait to find out about the outcome. Sending you positive vibes.

Measure of a Man and other stories

[(Anonymous)]

I'm just a timid lurker who reads your LJ because I love your Spuffy fiction so much and enjoy your comments. Now, of course, I have added you to my (long) list of worries because of your work situation, or lack thereof.

I meant to comment when I read in an earlier post that you were having difficulty picking up Measure of a Man and were, instead, working on another story. I know you have to work at the dictates of your muse but I do hope you'll get back to Measure of a Man sometime soon; it's a wonderful story. Like you, stories in which Spike moves on to a life without Buffy make my Spuffy-loving heart quiver in distress and incipient outrage. Well, I just can't help it! Call me a fool for love but I don't care how beautifully Spike is portrayed; I want a Spike who's beautifully written with Buffy.

There are only a few fanfiction writers who don't madden me with execrable English and/or puerile characterization, so the amount of readable Buffy fiction is, for my purposes, vanishingly small. I'm pitifully reliant on the writers whose work I love, and I expect to be bereft when they move on to other things. You write a Spike and Buffy who affect my heart, my mind, my imagination. You allow me to stay in the story from beginning to end without the unwelcome appearance of my inner critic and her nasty little red pencil. I'm always ravenous for more. Pretty please.
Simplepog

Re: Measure of a Man and other stories

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, please don't be timid -- I love the lurkers! I do have some of the next Measure chapter written, but I keep getting bogged down in plot points I find dificult, and so it's easier to write these other things that pop in. I find it hard to let go of things, though, and leave stuff uncompleted, so at some point it will go again... it's just taking its own sweet time!

But thank you so much for saying -- it's so rare for me to hear stuff about the writing that it means a great deal when I do. I'm not one of those people who blow off feedback, and I treasure hearing that people might want to see more of this piece.