My Writing, My Go
I was re-reading Untroubled Sky just because I had quoted Isumi in my previous entry and wanted to make sure I'd gotten him right (yup, verbatim). And then I realized just where the story had come from: writing.

Writing is like playing go. Everyone is born with varying amounts of talent, whether it be inventiveness, a sharp mind, keen observational skills, or a way with words. We start at different ages, some of us playing go writing as soon as we learn to hold a go stone pencil, others only beginning in high school, college, or their first few years of work; some of us begin after starting a family. We take different approaches to practice and studying, some of us more diligent than others. Some people read a lot of kifubooks; others play a lot of go write a lot. Some find rivals, mentors, or study groups writing/beta circles, others take go writing classes. Some take others under their wings and hope to learn something as they coach their proteges.

Some of us become insei begin to develop original work, whether of our own volition or pushed into it by others, and start moving towards becoming a pro getting published; others continue playing writing in amateur tournaments magazines or have fun at the local go salon write lots of fanfic. It's not an easy road. Some become discouraged and drop out; some of those become journalists, organizers agents, or sponsors editors. Some hit losing streaks writer's block. Some people seem to win tons of games write tons of stories effortlessly, while others wear their fingers to the bone trying to get into Class One earn some recognition and win the right to compete in the Young Lions' Tournament get noticed.

Not all of us will pass the pro exam get published. Some of us graduate without passing give up after enough years have passed, and others continue to try until they're thirty dead. Even if we pass the pro exam get our first book published, it isn't clear whether or not that will be our first and last significant victory publication. We compete with each other for titles industry awards. Some may be content to stay as they are with one title book to their name. Some may lose heart and do questionable things like sell fake gobans plagiarize. Some will retire early because they get tired of it all. However, most of us will continue to hone our skills. Some of us just want to keep getting better and better, and to find out just how good a game of go book they are capable of, and there will always be some of us who constantly strive towards The Hand Of God literary immortality.

We all play go write for our own reasons. Some of us just want some fun. Some of us like the feel of go stones pen and paper/keyboard. Some of us feel satisfaction at a good game played good story written. Some of us secretly (or not so secretly) seek titles critical acclaim or The Hand Of God literary immortality. Some play go write because other people do. Some of us do it because we just can't stop.

Why do you play go write?


ETA: Writers
Courtesy of moonsliver, some words I could really use whenever I feel down:

Writers are people who write. By and large, they are not happy people. They're not good at relationships. Often they're drunks. And writing -- good writing -- does not get easier and easier with practice. It gets harder and harder -- so eventually the writer must stall out into silence. The silence that waits for every writer and that, inevitably, if only with death (if we're lucky the two may happen at the same time: but they are still two, and their coincidence is rare), the writer must fall into is angst-ridden and terrifying - and often drives us mad. (In a letter to Allen Tate, the poet Hart Crane once described writing as "dancing on dynamite.") So if you're not a writer, consider yourself fortunate.

-- Samuel Delaney, On Writing

Tricked!
Dear achariya, that was a dirty trick! Now I have Carameldansen on the brain, and I am seriously thinking of ways to get the MP3. *facepalms* Oh CRAP.

*cheers*
Looks like kevinsensei will finally rejoin us here in Japan. Are you sure you want to be an April Fool, Kevin? *laughs* Anyway, let me know what you're doing and if you need help settling in again!

Livejournal
Apparently there is a Livejournal Content Strike. It starts at 9am on Friday and goes to 9am Saturday, I suppose. *sighs* Considering how dependent on Livejournal I am for my social circle, I'm not sure whether I want to join it.

My F-List Is Unique
Wow, all the votes for PWP and smut. You guys. *chuckling* Is my smut really all that hot? I definitely remember someone else telling me it wasn't.

Musing About Plagiarism, aka "When Is It Re-Telling, And When Is It Copying?"
Both this post (thanks to issen4 for the link) and this one talk about the line between fanfiction and plagiarism. Reading the posts (and doing a bit of link-surfing on my own) reminded me of Planeswalker. There are similarities, the biggest one being that the book in the post was originally a fanfic dusted off to become an original. It touched a nerve, and we all know what Ai does when she's looking to procrastinate.

( About 1000 words worth of soapboxing under the cut. HnG spoilers for the insei examination arc and beyond. )

Look At The Time
Good lord, I need to stop soapboxing. It's 4pm and I've done nothing but watch Hungry Heart Wild Striker all day (except for this entry and some LJ comments). I have in my hands Stein on Writing, delivered today--I'll be reading that before settling down with more background work. It IS my day off, though, and I do need a bit of a rest, so I shouldn't feel so bad about not working on PW or anything else.

ETA: One Million Words
thephoenixboy, considering I can do 1000 words of meta on a semi-regular basis at the drop of a hat, and I've been writing offline for years, I suppose I'm closer to one million words than I originally thought?

ETA2: Thank god for IRC archives. Now I can get the final three episodes in two hours instead of nine.

On Betas
Inspired by a post by mmorpgsforlife. When you think of a beta, what do you think of? Copy editing has its place, but what the writing world (and most writers need/crave) are good editors. We call them good betas, here in the world of fanfiction.

( This got a little long. )

^_^;;; Wow. That was long. Sorry Sparky, that was a bit of TL;DR. But when one sees the opportunity to tell things from this side of the fence, it's so very hard to resist that soapbox ...

ETA: I have to hasten to say that this is only true for me! O_o I don't know how other writers do this. I know one writer I beta for, ontogenesis, has a slightly different process from me. She thinks a lot more about her plot and characters before she even comes to me, and sometimes she just shows up with a few thousand words and goes, "Okay, your turn." However, I'm a very conversational type of writer. I don't write in isolation. I've tried it, and I can't--I fail horribly when that happens. Like I said, this is my point of view from my side of the fence. ^_^ That's all.

Also, I have to emphasize that not all my fics get this treatment. ^_^;;; For example, Tohoku was very much a mostly-narrative-beta sort of fic. Caramel took a LOT of concept-beta-ing, but minimal narrative-beta. His Grandfather's Dragon was very much a mash that needed a lot of narrative work and scrutiny, but Promise was so short nothing much was changed after the first draft hammered out. (There was another one for the Dragons AU that came out to a draft of 1000+ words. It did not survive beta and died.)

(Backdated.) This is a public entry for the purpose of hosting a poll (because I can't post polls to my community). Please feel free to check out apples_for_me or the post on this poll here!

( Seven questions under the cut )

Please feel free to comment on anything at all, even (especially) if it's not covered by the poll. Comments are screened! I have also temporarily turned on anonymous commenting, so you may be anonymous if you like.

Thank you SO MUCH for participating in the poll. I hope this helps lead to better fic you'll enjoy even more!