mrv3000 | Must sleep now.

It's been *HOT* here and I haven't gotten the hang of using a wall air conditioner instead of central air yet (cannot sleep with fans/clocks/noise), so I was hot and didn't fall asleep until about 3:30 last night. Woke up at 6:30 on the dot. I haven't crashed yet, but I expect it any time.

So in my not right state, I watched all of The 10th Kingdom which made me all nostalgic. That was the first fandom I wrote for, about six years ago. I understand parts of what really attracted me to it all those years ago. One being faerie tales. I read them all as a kid – the good, the bad and the violent. Another being the idea of a guy whose love is completely unconditional, that no matter what you do, he's still there. Happily ever after in our 50% divorce rate world, don't you know.

But parts are bit hard to watch now or had me hitting my forehead.

"You know, wanting to actually eat people is kinda...disturbing."

"OMG, did he just ask her to stroke his tail? OMG! SHE'S STROKING HIS TAIL. THIS IS LIKE ANIMAL PORN."

"I would last exactly five minutes with that singing ring before I ripped it off of my hand."

Etc.

Overall it's very cheesy. And somewhat disturbing. But there you have it.

The fics I wrote are completely gone. In a way I'd kinda like to see them again. On the other hand, it's probably better they're gone. In doing a web search for any of it, I ran across the 10th Kingdom monolith fic: House of Red. The writing was more simplistic than I remembered, but in spite of that, it's a 68 chapter fic that's as detailed and involved as the mini, with an original plot that's fully conceived.

I only *wish* I could story tell like that.

That's what used to make me sit up and take notice – more than the grammar, more than making sure the cliche count was low – the story. Someone to take me inside their made up world that's been written with the author's passion, where you get the feeling that they *had* to either write it down or it would burst out on its own. (Which could be pretty messy.) Sure you can have a grammatically perfect story, but if there's no soul behind it, it's kinda like listening to a computer generate the sound of a piano piece – yes, it's flawless, but there's no heart in the music.

Of course, I'm not saying that spelling and grammar aren't your friends, but let betas deal with that. When you write, get messy! Take chances! Fling that paint up on the canvas and to hell with the naysayers!

En Garde!

*poke poke poke*

Sorry, got carried away there for a minute. Where was I going with this? Not sure, because of the minimal sleep. I'm just rambling today.

Hmm.

But I miss writing those parodies with

josephides. Talk about flinging the paint up on the canvas! I miss the wildly creative days where I didn't even know what a beta was. Don't get me wrong, I love my betas and what betas do. I think I've just somehow gotten to the point of being so obsessed with the nuts and bolts of writing that I've squished out my creativity. But hey, at least I've got grammar.

*poke poke poke*