Sorry I'm late!

Fandom Meta:

papersky: Characterisation and POV — "It seems to me that language choice is part of characterisation, and whether or not it works for the story depends on whether it is correct characterisation for the POV character."

musesfool: People might say that I should strive for more (poll!) — "nyhow, this is something I've wrestled with in the past, and I have various thoughts about it both as a writer and a reader, as someone who did once have someone email me and say, "I think you're in a rut" and after my first "eek!" in response, I realized she was right, and I tried to do something about it, and now I'm wondering again, because there's being in a niche and being known for a certain type of story and then there's rewriting the same damn story over and over again without ever going deeper or charting new territory."

kayjayuu: OMG! META! RUN, GET THE DOCTOR!! (not that Doctor...) — "I am also absolutely floored at the level of education and intelligence, and actual careers and/or courses of study of both those on my flist and those outside in fandom as a whole. The discussions themselves are always worth the price of admission here on LJ, but moreover, the caliber of the people whom I've come across is simply astounding when compared to the "mundane" world, IMHO. [/fan-arrogance]"

gryfforin: Reviewing — Essay: Reviewing: Why We Don’t and Why We Should

iridescent_ink: A post/plea for help for those of you who read or write slash fiction — "I'm very interested in some of the characteristics of those of you who (like me) both read and write slash fiction. I'd be very, very grateful if you'd take the time to fill out the poll I've created on the subject; the poll is open to everyone, but the results are visible ONLY TO ME."

naominovik: A handful of borrowed and idle thoughts — "I'm mostly pointing and agreeing here, though I'm perhaps a little more inclined to feel that there are dangers in what yhlee calls ambient magic. I dislike mechanical systems for magic when I read fantasy, but I also grow frustrated when I feel as though the magic doesn't seem to obey any rules at all."

adis723: Fandom Random — "Actually, what I miss is the 5 years I spent lurking in the fandom. Lurking is neutral, it's comfortable. You simply can't piss people off if they don't know you're there."


Specific Fandom Meta:

coreopsis: Geeky McGeekerson at your service [SG:A] — " Because I am a pedantic dork, I commented on the preponderance of dropped articles in Zelenka's speech in an otherwise really in-character story and the author replied "because he does"." – Count of dropped articles in Zelenka's speech.

bookishwench: Thoughts on serial killers and frozen tulips [Buffy] — "We've had technically seven specific characters in the Buffyverse who could be labelled as serial killers: the Master, Darla, Angelus, Penn (a cameo character who did spark quite a bit of interest, so I'll count him), Drusilla, and Spike make up six (I'll get to number seven in a sec). That's 4/2 in favor of the men as serial killers."

nostalgia_lj: Friends, Lovers, And Other Types Of Alien [Dr. Who] — "In various places, much has been said about Nine and Rose and whether they Is Doin Teh Sex. And about an internal reasoning for why they're so close so fast. I hereby attempt to Think On This and compare them with Seven and Ace."

sanj: A Hufflepuff manifesto. [HP] — "So far, so good. It's easy to see what three of the houses value: they're looking for specific traits.... but what about Hufflepuff?"

coffee_and_ink: [Manga] This week's manga, in brief — "I plan to cover both these series in more detail later on, but I wanted to jot down a few quick impressions before I forgot them"

coffee_and_ink: [Anime] Brief thoughts about FMA as science fiction — "I've been arguing, and will continue to argue, that Fullmetal Alchemist is science fiction rather than fantasy, despite the presence of transmutations and homunculi and the recurring concern with souls, because two of its central themes are about what it means to have a scientific worldview and about what social responsibility scientists have for the results of their research. "

rozk: Article [Dr. Who] — "In the meantime, as promised to various of you, the piece on the Ninth |Doctor and the HHGG movie that appeared in the TLS today: "Which Doctor you regarded as the best, was one of those things that said something about you, like which Beatle you thought of as your special imaginary friend. Other fans would ask you the question and then look at you with cold eyes if you gave the wrong answer.""


On Writing, Vidding, etc.:

tazey: Misc. — "Speaking of fandom, are there any places out there where I could get actual in-depth fic and vid critique? Farscape fandom places I suppose, unless there are multi-fandom ones."

laurashapiro: Thinky vidding meta thoughts — "See, we're media fans, right? Our source texts are TV shows and movies: visual media. And we analyze them. We natter on at length, in fact. Why, then, can't we turn around and think/talk about vids the same way?"

sdwolfpup: Vidding crit board - several questions — New Forum: " So over in tazey's post the discussion came up about wanting critique on vids and not really getting any and how do we go about solicitng honest-to-goodness critique. LiveJournal and Yahoo Group lists were thrown around as ideas, as well as a more typical forum. "

fanthropology: FanArchive.NEXT — " What do YOU think the perfect Fanfic Archive needs to work - realistically?"

branchessays: The Nature of Musing — "uses. Imaginary Friends. Characters. As best I can tell, you know, the three have always been much the same thing to me."


Other:

koimistress: golly, gosh, goddarn, godel, escher, bach — "Basically, there are readers who find phrases like "oh, god," to be jarring, because they believe that usage demands a capital G there, regardless of whether the speaker means to be referring to a proper name or not, or referring to a god or not. They see the rule as ironclad. This engendered a great deal of discussion and disagreement in comments; the use of lower-case g is widespread, and there are those who feel justified in its use. The debate runs, "I believe the lower-case g is allowable, for the following reasons," along with, "Whatever your reasons are, you're wrong, because usage does not allow it.""

nifra_idril: Hi. I'm officially spamming you now. — "So, how do you guys title? Do you go into a story thinking "I will call this fic X, and then shape the fic to fit X." or do you do what I do, which is write a fic, and then ask your beta things like "Can't I just call it 'And then they got it on'? Please?""

Lee Goldberg & etc.:

thelastgoodname: On blogs, metanarratives, and theft, outright and i — "he two things that these two "professional writers" (in scare quotes because neither they nor their friends come across as particularly professional in either of these rants) seem to have in common, are that they'd NEVER EVER want anyone to write fanfiction about any of their characters, and that people don't write fanfiction about any of their characters."

sistermagpie: Saving the Universe with Luke and Han — "Now, I don't think I'll even go into all the issues that seem to be on display with this guy and the other self-proclaimed professional or wanna-be professional writers who agree with him. They seem mainly obsessed with a) finding a group they’re superior to (which isn't easy) and b) being really angry at how little respect readers have for the individual author."

alchemia: Its all fanfic to me... — "I think actually ALL stories are “fanfic” to some degree- only some are more unashamed and upfront about it, while others try to hide it. Which makes me wonder WHERE the line is drawn."

sistermagpie: Ethical fanfic again response to jocelync: "maybe I reacted badly to the idea that someone was defending fanfic by trying to throw most fanfic writers out the window, raising one group up by pushing others down . . . Then I realized there was a bigger problem with that whole line of thought: it essentially re-creates the anti-fanfic position."

jocelyncs: The Complete Id--Er, Published Author's Guide To Fanfiction — "Over on Lee Goldberg's journal, the debate rages on.  I confess to having managed to hijack the Mystery Writers of America thread into another debate on the merits/legalities/ethical implications of fanfiction.  So far, Lee has kindly permitted us to kerfluffle, but if he should initiate the Almighty Power of Threadkill, I invite the participants to move the party over here."