i wanna toast tonight

[terabient]

i am postponing the Animu Boston: Chinese Porno Cartoon Tragedy writeup for a few days, mostly because my brain is still a pile of slush swimming in beer and liquor, and also i forgot my camera so i am hoping other people will upload pictures of some of the fab things i saw/did over the weekend.

I BET YOU ARE ALL TERRIBLY DISAPPOINTED.

so i am going to shower you all with sparkles and confetti and cupcakes!!! fanfic praise with this meme taken from bri_ecrit:

We can all feel a little sucky about our writing ability sometimes. So this is the meme to try and deal with that. Comment here and I'll give you detailed love for as many of your fics as I can. Afterwards, post this in your own LJ and spread the love.

I EXPECT MANY COMMENTS FROM MY MORE WRITER-LY EL-JAY FRIENDS. EVEN IF YOU'VE ALREADY RESPONDED TO SOMEONE ELSE'S. EVEN IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE FIC TO YOUR NAME. THERE IS LOVE AND TENTACLE HUGS TO BE HAD AND YOU CANNOT ESCAPE!!!

Comments

[jessieheart.livejournal.com]

An author's moral-boosting meme? Can I play? ♥

[theplaidsheep.livejournal.com]

yes please! I need impetus to finish my fic .

You can tell the sign of a good con, when the hangover takes several days to recover from lol!

[terabient]

this reminds me that i have yet to leave a review for the last chapter of Interregnum (despite reading it multiple times... ;0 ) i'm so bad at leaving feedback :[

There's so much I love about your writing, both in style and plotting, but what really sticks out is the way you set a scene. Interregnum has a palpable sense of dread from the opening line, This is your Happy Ever After has joy practically bursting under the surface, and Nine Months feels...not confused but there is a real feel of disorientation/surprise in each chapter. On a 'macro' level there is also a great deal of well-done world building in Interregnum that is also presented in a very readable manner (unlike some writers, who have richly detailed worlds presented with all the eloquence of a history textbook coughtolkiencough).

Your dialog between characters is wonderful to read. Writing uh...i guess i'd have to call it 'witty banter' is difficult - more often than not, verbal duels tend to come off as forced and predictable, where the conversation has an obvious progression and conclusion. The conversations between Ivy and Siegfried are always a surprise; I never find any of the 'tells' that so often plague one-on-one conversations. The progression feels natural and unexpected at once.

I also admire the sexual undercurrents you put in your scenes - Ivy waking up Siegfried in the latest chapter in Interregnum comes to mind. Very sexually charged without using explicit language, and the way the tension is left unresolved makes the resulting 'sparring match' much more intense, both emotionally and physically.

BASCIALLY you are a wonderful writer and i am always glad to see new stuff from you, even if i am a bad e-friend and don't always comment ;(

[theplaidsheep.livejournal.com]

Oh you've made me *glow*! I think I've said before that I appreciate the thought you put into reviewing my fic, but you've said such lovely things here. I always slightly worry at my dialogue, usually it writes itself but I do get awkward moments when the flow gets interrupted and crap! So I'm glad I'm being successful when it comes to making them interact. :) Also I can't *not* do sexually undercurrents when it comes to those two, I always end up having to get them a room in my head! :3 Oh smut ahoy very very soon I promise you!

[terabient]

OF COURSE you can play!~

(this goes for any other anons who write and are reading this, too. i - i don't bite!)

ANYWAY. meme! i can only talk about what you've written for Left 4 Dead, though... ^^;

One thing I love about your writing is the...how to say this...the indirect way you describe physical scenes. I find it most noticeable in sex scenes but it's also in action sequences, and, well, i guess everywhere, but ANYWAY. What I mean is, you...have sentences, word choices, that are extremely evocative - not just in a visual way but in an all senses way - that are also unique and original, but not...overbaked in the way 'indirect' writing sometimes becomes.

I also really admire the way you can charge simple moments - gestures, conversations, looks - with a great deal of emotional weight without using an excess of words. For example, this end for one of your music meme drabbles always stuck out for me, enough that I remember it months later:

They find the matches soaked through and useless, and Ellis throws them in a way that robs the air of any lingering warmth. Rochelle saves it, however, by offering the boy her waterproof boots, and Ellis laughs because, damn, Rochelle's feet are small.

Nick wonders, for a moment, why he was the only one to wrap his matches in plastic. He almost says something but instead thinks of signal flares, molotovs, cigarettes, and Ellis shakes and shivers because that's how things have to be.

So much said in a few sentences, there!

(not meme-related, but: i started on that Francis/Zoey request BUT it kind of blew up in my head to something all multi-chaptered and LONG and i wanted to wait until The Passing came out to see what happened to them post-game BUT since that seems to be delayed I'm waffling between what I want to do....just wanted to let you know i didn't forget/ignore your request. ^^; )

[jessieheart.livejournal.com]

*flails* You're so flattering! THANK YOU!!!! ♥ &Hearts; ♥
I actually work ridiculously hard at that whole brevity thing. Tighten up those lines, you know? It's so heartwarming to know that my efforts haven't gone unnoticed. T_____T

I totally have to do this meme now... Everyone deserves to feel this good about their writing...!

(Non-Meme: Unffff! That's so good to hear! Whatever you decide to do, I'm sure it'll be amazing, and I cannot wait! Can I have a hint of what's on your mind? If not, that's fine! Now you've made me want The Passing again--yesterday, I was content to wait, curse you!--but now I need character interactions, you have no idea.)