left-handed signatures, amnesty, remix

[oiran]

Have we ever seen a good, clear Lex Luthor signature onscreen? I can't think of one, though I know I've seen plenty of "Lex" (complete with quotes) MR signatures on fannish trinkets. I haven't personally seen evidence of MR signing a full "Lex Luthor" on any fan stuff, either. I ask because I want a good, clear image of either MR/Lex's signature as Lex Luthor for a project. If anyone could point me to a screencap or a scan of an autograph, I'd appreciate it muchly.

ETA: shannenb is a loving and giving Goddess. That is all.

~~~

Do you hate me? Do I drive you nuts? Do you only have me on your friends list so you can complain to your actual friends about what a whiner I am? Is a fic post from me just another opportunity to mock how much my writing sucks? A recent unfriending has me surprised and also tired of cliqueish LJ pettiness and...and...and just all the crap. If I bother you that much, please do unfriend me, sooner rather than later (i.e., now), and we'll all feel much better. Or, as less testy people have put it: unfriending amnesty time! No questions asked!

~~~

I'm still trying to pick a story from the plethora of options for my remixredux assignment. I am rather intrigued by a couple of options, and it's been fun because I actually knew and liked a lot of this author's work, but hadn't realized it was all her stuff, since I apparently don't do a good job of linking titles to authors, or even titles to contents. I'm really enthusiastic about this, and I've been hoping it would happen for months and months.

And for whoever got me, I have more fodder for you! I've posted three stories this weekend, with a fourth to come today. It's all SV/Bruce Wayne stuff: Scions, Born Slippy, and Eidolon helvum. I'll also be cleaning up and posting a slightly different version of my silly pon farr story, Biological Imperative, to the archives and my site soon.

I'm really excited about remixredux because I'm excited to see what someone will do with my ideas, whether for (IMO) better or worse. Several people on my friends list have been talking about hating their writing, being discouraged, wanting to improve some aspect of their work, etc., and I'm hoping the remix process will afford me a little of that when I see what has been done with something of mine. I'm hoping that seeing how someone else's process shapes "my" ideas will give me a little insight into what I've been doing with the same raw materials.

Ideally, I would be able to approach various fanwriters whose work I really admire and just ask them to rework a story or even a few paragraphs of mine, but 1) I'm not that bold, and 2) I can't imagine that most people have the time to indulge my whims. I'm very aware that I have much room to improve but I like my writing. I don't like all pieces equally, but if I liked them well enough to post, I like them (all stories are equal, but some are more equal than others). I joke about being a diva with my friends, but is it really diva-ish behavior if I just don't hate this aspect of myself with all my puny might? No, I don't think so, either ;)

Comments

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like your writing (some more equally than others) because personally I find it really dull when authors complain about how much they suck. I've got just as many issues with my writing as the rest of us do (as you well know, since you know me personally) but one of my New Year's Resolutions was to stop saying bad things about my writing to the best of my ability.

This means to me--restraining from replying to feedback comments in a self-deprecating manner. Telling people that I (*gasp*) liked a certain part, too, if they point it out. Admitting that I'm having fun writing and enjoy it. And if someone says something outrageously complimentary acknowledging as a huge compliment, but not shrugging it off or otherwise deflecting it.

I'm doing this for the most part because, honestly, I'm tired of women kowtowing (sp?) to other women in order to try to keep the playing feel flat and harmonious. Women need to learn how to praise (love) themselves and a culture of women generally doesn't allow for that because we are acrimonious bitches who try to shove one another down.

Which, yeah, is so ingrained in us that it is hard to overcome, but at the moment I'm trying to not let the culture of acrimony affect my self-esteem building efforts (heheheh) around my writing and therefore, I'm taking a lesson from mistressace and not putting my writing down (in public) any more.

Heh. Or until I have a fit of I'm-a-loser-dom and become a hypocrite and do exactly what I just said I wouldn't. ;)

Anyway, yay for you not hating your writing. Why don't you admit it? There's part of you that actually (*gasp*) loves your writing.

Oh, and send me the acrimonious scoop by email re: the unfriending. Bwahahahaha.

Re:

[dolimir-k.livejournal.com]

Women need to learn how to praise (love) themselves

Amen sister.

While I don't like everything I write, I'm very pleased with most of my stuff. While I'll never write like some (women whose work I adore) it doesn't take away from the fact that I do okay. Like I've recently said, I'm the Stephen King of fanfic. Heh! Not horror-wise. But I tell a good tale. I may never be Vonnegut or Hemmingway, but people will get a good yarn if they listen to me.

Girl power!

Okay........I am in such a weird mood today. Sorry. Heh!

Re:

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

Girl power! It makes me want to wear a cape...and twirl!

Seriously, though, LJ has proven to be both the most supportive and the most demoralizing forum for trying to develop oneself as a writer. All of the friending/not-friending/unfriending bullshit, some pointedly pompous pronouncements (by people no longer on my list, in case anyone wonders who I'm talking about), and the general backstabbing that seems to run rampant makes it hard for me to even want to approach a number of people who have technical prowess that I admire and want to emulate--people I could learn from, theoretically. But there's all this childish flouncing going on, and it's easy to get sucked in. It takes away from the fun, and from the writing.

And, like everyone else, I've watched in irritated fascination as cliques declare themselves (in a sort of round-robin of back-patting and laurel-bestowing) the best and most canonically pure writers of fanfic around, when the claims are either A) completely subjective, or B) just not true. Perhaps it is obvious that I have an issue with absolutes when it comes to creative product. Besides, have a long, tedious list of personal social injustices I like to share when I've had a few drinks, and sometimes LJ just pushes all my buttons ;)

Strange mood? Heh. It's a strange feeling when you think you've gone off topic in your own journal...

Re:

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

Hey! No need to apologize for weird moods. Sorry that I'm just replying. I think that you write lovely stuff and I'm here to say:

Girl Power, activate!!! In the shape of...

Author!!

(see, I have weird moods, too.)

Re:

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

I think I do a good job of that, actually. If you think otherwise, I'd like to know. I just don't see the point in pretending I hate what I'm doing. If there are things I think I could have done better, I will sometimes say that, depending on who I'm talking with, i.e., if it's someone who I think understands that I actually do have plenty of writerly esteem, based on past interactions.

And I do *love* some things I've written very, very much. Which makes it interesting to me to see what readers have passion about, because they're not necessarily the same pieces or even the same aspects. But even if I think readers are on crack to prefer Story X over Story Y, Story X is still pretty damn dear to my heart ;)

My favorite author for both style and structure is Nabokov. I am never going to actually "be" Nabokov (however you interpret that), obviously, but I can aspire, and I'm not likely to become less skilled if I continue to write. And I think it is very important to have a lofty goal that you are certain you will never reach. If I can never be as all-around miraculous as Nabokov, I just have to keep working and trying... I find that oddly comforting and inspiring.

You know, I've tried to stop whining for strokes, period. I am my own worst enemy in any arena, but I'm certain that I don't suck as a writer. I don't suck as a person, even, although I *do* think Mr. Glove has the patience of a saint.

Re:

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry if I came across as saying you don't do a good job of it. I was mainly addressing the the thing as whole based on what I see in fandom and how I've behaved in the past. :D

Nabokov--see? This is why we love one another. He is my ideal as well and I will never meet that mark. I salivate on his books and am utterly in awe of the fact that English was not his first language.

Re:

[velvetglove.livejournal.com]

Eep! No I didn't think you were making that statement. I just genuinely wondered if you had noticed that in my responses. Because I could be doing it and not realize it, since (as we both know) it's far too easy to come across just plain wrong in this forum.

I love Lolita, but my favorite is Pale Fire. I also loved/hated Pnin, and even though I read that one only once, I remember the intense, pitying hatred I had for poor Pnin, and I thought: God, if I could do this even half so well... And I bet if I keep trying, I *will* achieve the half mark, at any rate ;)

Re:

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

Dude!!! My fave is Pale Fire, too!!!

Re:

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

My classic Christchurch tall-poppy-bashing approach to Nabokov is, he was such a wonderful writer *because* English was not his first language. When you approach a language from a distance, as it were, it becomes this wonderful amazing thing, and you're both constrained by your limitations and freed by them. You firstly have to become creative, because you have the comprehension and intellect of an adult trapped in an 8 year old's vocabulary, and then as you learn the language more and more you never lose the fascination with how it is different, and forces you to approach expression differently.

At least, that is my view based on one blissful weekend in Paris trying to communicate in very rusty schoolgirl French (a language I was very good at in the high school sense).

Re:

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting theory. I think it has to be indicative of his genius that he was more freed than constrained.

Re:

[nerodi.livejournal.com]

therefore, I'm taking a lesson from mistressace and not putting my writing down (in public) any more.

Yay!! Because you know it drives me batty when you do this!!!!


Hi Jed, I like your writing. I look forward to reading your new story sometime this week!

Re:

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

Because you know it drives me batty when you do this!!!!

Yes, it drives me batty too! and it drives me batty to see other people do it!

I like Jed's writing, too, and will be reading her story either tonight or tomorrow or the next night. Or the one after that.