New lands for the living

[gwyn]

I finally had a few moments last night to put up some Christmas lights, but this year has meant that I never had time to put up much of anything. It feels really disappointing and kind of depressing this year, but if I can I might stroll around the neighborhood and look at lights tonight. Although I was kind of fantasizing about eking out a short holiday Stucky fic, despite how pointless it feels.

The Yuletide story has had at least one big editing pass and a smaller one. minim_calibre was insisting that I just had to make it so it could stand as my last thing if I was hit by a bus, but I told her that a bus edit was still too much of a minimum--my ghost would be condemned to walk the earth, tortured for eternity by the missed felicitous phrasing I didn't think of in time, the typos I still didn't catch, the characterization insufficiently rendered or that was in fact an assassination. Such are the problems of an editor who fancies herself a writer and whose only fragments of quality always come in the editing passes, which is why there are usually so many of them.

Betaing is done as well, and if I could come up with any kind of treat idea for the lone requestor of Fandom X, I would write a treat, but it's like my brain has gone on lockdown. I was also telling min that I feel I've become Sadness from Inside Out, and have just flopped down on the floor and can only move from place to place by dragging. This is how I live now, or at least till Yuletide's over and then I'll be coming up with brilliant ideas left and right. (I suppose there's always New Year's Resolutions...)

Comments

[musesfool]

I keep thinking I want to write treats but not writing treats is so much easier!

*hugs*

[gwyn]

Yeah, it really is. Probably makes for a more enjoyable holiday with so much less stress.

[musesfool]

Yes and no? I mean, now all my yuletide attention is focused on the fact that my story is still in the single digits in terms of kudos, whereas if I had more than one in the collection, I might feel that less. *hands*

[gwyn]

Yeah, I kinda know what you mean--last year, especially, my fic was the least read of all the fics in the fandom, and no one recced it although they recced the others, so I was really glad that I'd written a last-minute treat for Logan. It seemed to go over way, way better and one person even called it a small masterpiece, so that sort of salvaged things a little bit for me. The fandoms I often write in, too, do not seem to ever get recs on the big lists (I guess they're too lowbrow?), not that mine would be included anyway but I think when you're starting from a place that seems unpopular by Yuletide standards, it's downhill from there! :-D

The really hilarious in an awkward way thing, though, is that this is the second or third time I wrote in the same fandom that I received as a gift. ::crying::

[mackiemesser]

It's been a tough year, that's for sure. I hope you get a chance to tour the lights: I always find them uplifting,, especially when you find a house that goes all out.

I think you are obligated to refer to the minimum edit as a "bus pass." It's a moral imperative.

[gwyn]

The main problem lately is a: neverending torrential rain and b: i don't see that well in the dark anymore, and after the fall this year, I really don't want to risk doing that again. Can't afford it!

Bus pass. Ha.

[mackiemesser]

Well, if you're going to be reasonable about it... :D
But, yeah, I hear you: it's cold and rainy here tonight so I immediately cancelled my plan to walk the dog. Like, I have a big yard and he's a small dog. And it is very cold by desert standards.

[batwrangler]

Tea?

*hugs*

[catwalksalone]

*hugs*

Everything is harder when it’s dark all the time. Go and look at the lights; it’s almost impossible not to be at least a little uplifted by them.

[gwyn]

That is definitely true. I keep thinking of getting one of those SAD lights but I don't know where to put it, there's so little room here, and right now it's not financially feasible. Christmas lights are better, though they run the risk of me falling down in the dark. My immediate neighbors have been really disappointing lately--they have nothing up at all! I could just look from the safety of my window but noooo.

[minim_calibre]

I am going to be so cross with myself if I cannot manage at least one small damn fucking treat for someone this year.

[bond_girl]

I completely punted on participating in this year's Yuletide (because things and stuff), but I'm hoping to read. So glad you wrote a thing <3

I wish you could see our Christmas lights! We are in all-out holiday cheer mode this year :) I get SAD from Nov to Feb, so I put the fairy lights even indoors - they really help my mood.

[gwyn]

Yeah, they really do make things better--I always have such a hard time taking them down. There's a reason we have so many light-related festivals this time of year!