Here I Am

My wubulous doctor has called in two prescriptions for my back, one of them being a muscle relaxer. Though he pointed at my head and said, "Be careful though because sometimes it relaxs other muscles too." My doctor, the medical comedian.

Now I really need to start writing. Preferably today rather than continuing to write in my journal. I'm such a lazy bastard sometimes. Eep.

**

So dragonsinger posted the following question to her friends: What kinds of fics really catch your attention and make you go squee?

I'm the first to admit that in some ways I'm a very picky reader. I'm the type of reader you have to win over within a few paragraphs because I can get distracted by shiny lights. Is that necessarily fair to the writer? I don't know, but I do know that fandom and fanfiction are supposed to be fun and if I'm not enjoying the story...I just move on.

But some of the things that will most likely get me to read your story:

1) The characters. - I'm a character girl. I've said it before in this journal and I'll say it again. It applies to everything fictional - television, movies, books, and fanfiction. If I don't like the characters, I'm not going to bother, no matter how good the plot is. In fanfiction, I want to see the character that I already love. I don't like the cop out of A/U as the writer's carte blanche to write a beloved persona completely out of character. At the same time, bringing new believable layers to a character we see is something that will have me shouting "brilliance" from the mountaintop.

2) Banter. - It's why I adore Aaron Sorkin and Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon. I want the banter. I want the snappy dialogue and the sarcasm and the wit.

3) The Cheese Factor. - I am not, nor have I ever been the romantic sort by general standards. It's why I don't read most romances. So I tend to avoid anything that's overly cheesy and we all know it when we see it. Lines like "you complete me" or weeping single tears or declarations of true love that include "you see into my soul." I stop reading. It's just not my thing.

4) Amazing Language - Okay, I might let you slide on the first two if you have a brilliant hold on language. It's the reason I read Michael Cunningham, for example. I couldn't care less about his characters or his plots, but the way he strings words together is fucking amazing. It makes me weep with love of the written word and jealousy that I can't write like that. Please note: amazing language is not the same thing as a whole lot of unneccessary purple prose.

5) The Technicals. - I've done posts on my grammar nitpicks before so I'll save you all that rant. But basically, if there are more than a few mistakes, I'm not going to bother reading it because the writer didn't bother to edit. The editor in me comes out when I stumble upon these stories and the last thing I want to do is have to work at enjoying a story.

Those are really my five main criteria for a story. There might also be other rules depending on the fandom. In larger fandoms, I much more picky with what I'll read because there is so much more to choose from. Really small fandoms where I can only find a few stories and really need a fix, well, I'm more likely to be a bit more lenient on my criteria. Also, some fandoms I'm a very OTP girl whereas in others I love it all. For example, I tend to stick with Michael/Maria in Roswell and really won't read them with anyone else because I can't see it. But then there is Firefly where I have no real OTP aside from the canon of Zoe/Wash.

I guess though the general rule of thumb is the five things listed above. You bring those and chances are I'll read your story.

**

So far only dragonsinger has provided me with some ficlet requests. Again, not promising anything, but I'm gonna try to work with them. So if you have any bunnies you won't be using or a ficlet request, leave it and I'll see what I can do.

Now I'm off to get some other stuff in order.

Ciao, mis amigas.