90% of everything is crap.

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

> 90% of everything is crap.
> 
> Find the 10%; then let's talk.
> 
> Gwen

bboy_mn:

Well Gwen, let's assume that 90% of the crap isn't pure crap but
varying degrees of crap.

The first thing we have to deal with is that very few of these authors
really consider themselves writers. That is, despite having written a
lot of XXX-Slash as well as some PG-13-Slash, as well as some fun PG
stories, I don't consider myself a writer. (In another post I pointed
out that I publish, on the internet, stories exceeding 500,000 words
this year.) I know, I will never be a professional writer. I know I
will never truly be 'published'. But I'm having soooo much fun.

If you are a writer, then you know what an amazing experience it is.
You're sitting around the house or driving in your car, and an idea
comes to you. Sometimes no more than a brief scene that represents the
core of an idea. You rush to your computer and you start to type, and
it is like a dam breaks. A torrent of words come spilling out,
sometime for hours and sometimes for days on end as the story takes
shape. Where it comes from, how it all manages to fall together, what
it all means is anyone's guess, but it comes and it keeps coming. Then
late one night, you type 'Fade to Black', and sit back an see this
marvelous thing that you created. Something that sprang forth from
within you from a place that you didn't even know you had. 

You run the spell check. (You damn well better run the spell check it
you expect anyone to read this.) Then you let it sit for a few days
and come back and read it with fresh eyes, and clean it up a bit. If
you are lucky, you've found a Beta-Reader to help you clean it up and
refine it. Then comes the big test, you publish it. You leave a note
and a link at your favorite slash discussion group, then you wait and
wonder. Did I really accomplish something, did I really create
something, or did I just waste a lot of time? Is this really story or
just a pointless collection of words? It's hard to judge for yourself.
It's hard to evaluate yourself when you are so close to something.

Then you get an email; someone has left a comment on your story. You
heart quickens and you feel jittery as you naviagate to the comments
page, and you see things like this-


BROTHERS: "I enjoyed this fic immensely. I liked very much your
personification of Percy and Molly. And as always Harry and Ron were
just *perfect*."

BROTHERS: "Hi! I gotta say that ever since I discovered this story I
was stuck with it and every time someone asks me if I know a good
Harry/Ron story I always recommend this one. It ROCKS!!!"

BROTHERS: "Now *this* I liked. " [From someone who hated all my other
stories.]

THE CHESS CLUB: "This story was absolutely great! ^_^ It was nice that
Ron got the spotlight for once - and found out that he wasn't sure if
he liked it too much after all."

THE CHESS CLUB: "I am in love with this!"

RESPECT: "hehehehe"

RESPECT: "I love it!! It's hilarious!!"

RESPECT: "I've always wanted someone to write a story like this..."



YES! YES! YES! I really did it. I really wrote a story; a real story.
Not just an endless collection of pointless words. I made someone
laugh. I made someone cry. I made some one care. That's what this is
all about. It's not about these characters being represented with
absolute adherence to their standard character. 

These stories above are very mild, slightly slashy but really anyone
could read them without any trouble. I think most of them are PG,
PG-13, NC-13, and one is R for one very short very small slash reference.

I wrote another story 'The Cavern' that is just totally trashy (work
in progress) as naughty as naughty can be, but it's funny. It's
rediculous. And that was the point of it all, to write a rediculous,
funny, trashy story about these characters. Although, one reviewer
said it didn't stimulate him intellectually. I had to wonder why he
read through 8 chapters of rediculous, funny trash hoping for
intellectual stimulation.

90% of everything is crap.

Yes, that's right. None of these writers are professionals. Some of
them aren't even out of school yet. My writing has strange and
incorrect grammer, because I grew up as white trash; Norwegian white
trash. I have ingrained, improper speech patterns. I tend to be
repetative; I say things over and over again, frequently reusing
certain phrases. I'm highly repetative and repeat myself a lot ;). 

These are bad habits that I struggle to break, and I'm getting better
at it. But in the end, I'm not a professional writer, I'm just a guy
having fun. And in my universe, Harry and Ron love each other with a
deep, intimate, unrelenting, undying love, a joy of love and life fun,
and hell, hardship, pain, fear, misery, separation, and heartache and
heartbreak will never tear them apart. Regardless of what Harry and
Ron do in your universe, we should all be so lucky to find love in our
lifetime as good and true and deep as the love Ron and Harry share for
each other in my universe.

Just a few thoughts on a dangerously off topic topic.

bboy_mn