On why you should vote in this year's CBFFAs...

Which you can do, by the way, here.

Okay, a lot of the people reading this aren't active in the comic fanfic community any more, or don't feel like going through the task of voting. Fair enough, life is a busy, busy thing, and we all have demands on our time. However, if you read or write comic fic, it's really important for you to go and vote this year.

It's not a secret that vote-stacking occurs in this thing every year. People get their non-fic reading friends and family to vote, invent personae, the works. It's actually kinda sad, when you consider that we do this for the love of it, and the award is really just an indication of the worth certain works are held in, nothing more. No prize, no 'status', nothing tangible, just a really big warm fuzzy feeling and the knowledge that something you have written is considered worthy. And whilst you can detect the sock puppets with the technological know-how, flooding the vote is another whole problem. So, in order to avoid it this year, there's a push to get as many people involved in comic fic this year to vote. Basically to drown out the fakes with the real thing.

"Why bother?" I hear you ask. "It's only an award for writing fanfic." Well, the reason why it's worth bothering is that if we allow inertia to win, let the ballot-stuffers make a mockery of the process and of all the hard work put in by the organisers, then we might as well shut up the CBFFA shop right now. And I, for one, don't want to see that happen. The CBFFAs are a way of honouring our best, of communicating to new readers what the good stuff is. It's a way of making up for twelve months of forgetting to send feedback. ;) And besides, I hate dishonesty, and I hate even more seeing it triumph. So there's a principle here. :)

After the election in which Bush was allegedly elected, I remember having the discussion with one of the Aussies that something like that can't happen here, because voting is compulsory. Voting only works if everyone participates. Same principle applies here - the CBFFAs only work if they are voted upon by as large a number of the fanfic community as possible.

So, if you read comic fic, go vote. There's a list of links to all the nominated stories, so you can read stuff if you don't know it. Tell your friends. In fact, let's make it an LJ meme. The CBFFA link meme. Post the link in your LJ and direct your comic fic friends to it. Post it to any comicfic mailing lists you're on, if it hasn't been posted already. Encourage as many people in the community to vote. And that goes for comic media - movies, TV shows, etc based on comics.

Go and do it now. :)

Isn't it ironic...

...that I'm vaguely annoyed by finding only work-related email in my work email account? *grins* Yeah, I know, that's what it's for, but man, it's been a long day without any amusing distractions. And there's only so often I can log into LJ before I get busted by the Net Police.

Bo training last night was a lot of fun. Hard work too - the instructor is of the old school and doesn't let us slack off too much. I rode home from work, got changed, collected my bo, and caught the tram down, because the combination of conditions (dark, wet, busy traffic and six foot long pole strapped to bike fram) was not conducive to me actually living long enough to get to training. I walked home afterwards, which was nice - cool breeze, but not cold, very light sprinkle of rain on my face, "Rain In My Heart" on the internal stereo... It took me about half an hour to get home, but it was worth it.

More writing last night - things are definitely progressing, and I'm finding if I sit myself down with the intention to write at least one paragraph, I'm doing it. It does mean that I'm not logging on of an evening - too much distraction - which is why my LJ entries tend to be rush jobs from work. Still, I've just finished my pile of stuff and since my inbox is depressingly work-y, I feel justified in some sneaky journal action. :)

I put in that job application on Tuesday, so the waiting game begins again. And I'm going to sort out my online resume on seek.com.au sometime this weekend - not sure when, with a social life tacklepouncing me again, but sometime. Maybe Sunday morning. There's a gathering of the Melbourne Maelstrom this Saturday to take advantage of the free stand up comedy that is hopefully on at Southgate this weekend (I love the Melbourne Comedy Festival - it's all about the funny business *ducks*), and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and I are going to see The Vagina Monologues at the University Theatre Saturday night. And Sunday is an expedition to Gran Prix Cycles (which is where BRM is working now) to see about getting Phil his own wheels.

Hopefully I'll find some time to do laundry before it stages a coup in my bathroom.

So, that's what I'm up to right now. Ordinary karate training tonight (thank goodness!), a call from [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] who apparently isn't talking to me *grins*, and hopefully another couple of paragraphs. Although Constantine made his presence felt this morning, so I might have to switch stories again. I knew there was a reason why I only used to work on one at a time...

Have a good one.

"How do you get your ideas?"

Something I was thinking about today - how do other writing people get their ideas? Not the actual idea for a story; I mean to process after, the process of elaborating and expanding that initial "Hey, wouldn't this make a good story".

What prompted it was I had another one of my flashes this morning - those sudden intuitive leaps that connect one part of a story with another, in a way that you've apparently been leading up to all the time, without realising it. It's how I plot; I get the initial idea, construct a rough plot around it (kind of a Start and End, with various scenes I want in the Middle), and then start writing. The bits in the middle are filled in with these starburst flashes, where I've obviously been thinking about various problems with the plot in some forgotten corner of my brain, and then when I have the answer, it leaps out at me. Usually when I'm just waking up or in the shower or riding into work.

So, now I'm curious (and bored - I ran out of work and my inbox is empty) - how do you write?