Memory and stuff · 4:10pm Aug 8th, 2012
One of the little things that struck me in Thanqol's Yours Truly was the the mention of Twilight's bad memory.
The main thing that struck me was that it was bloody heartbreaking and saying 'one of the little things that struck me' is like referring to a single milligray in Hiroshima, but that's besides the point.
I've always had a horrid memory, and a great amount of what I do is built on constant reconstruction. If I was searching for something earlier, for instance, and then change the tab to write it down to search for it, I will only remember what I was searching for by either concentrating enormous amounts of raw thought towards it or by catching a glimpse of something by which I can be said to have received the idea from.
The thing is, I don't write my proper ideas down; in transcription, they lose some undefinable quantity because it is impossible to transcribe the compulsion behind it. So when I get inspiration and don't pursue it with immediacy, it dies. The idea might remain, but only as a corpse. There are plenty of ideas that have ended this way, written down in some to-do list in the hope that the spark may come back - it rarely ever does, of course, which is why almost all of the stories I plan fail and all the ones I don't succeed. Planning things turns them into a chore.
Socks is a bit of an illustration of this sort of triggered memory - not in a way, of course, that I experience, and far more dramatic than any real sense - and is just some silly little random thing. I believe it might also have been somewhat inspired by a comment on Twilight Discovers Literary Analysis, where some fine gentleman posited that perhaps Luna went mad because she felt the narrative's existence.
That being said, I push no great meaning into it, and it is purely random; feel free to calumniate me for its existence.
God, I love the word 'calumniation'.
As an amusing side-note, I got the rejection for Twilight Discovers Literary Analysis half-way through writing this thing:
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it for posting. You have a problem with run-on sentences (the first paragraph of chapter 2 being a prime exaple), but more importantly this fic is not all that funny. I can see the style of meta-literature humor you're going for, but your characters and narrative are constantly essentially explaining the jokes, which tends to ruin them. I do like the concept, but your execution leaves a lot to be desired in that respect, and it makes your fic rather dull. I'm not the only prereader that found this boring. Feel free to resubmit for a second opinion, but I'm afraid I have to give this a first strike. On the other hand, this did generate plenty of attention of Fimfic, so it may save everyone time and effort if you simply kept it there.
You have a problem with run-on sentences (the first paragraph of chapter 2 being a prime exaple)
You have a problem with run-on sentences
problem with run-on sentences
run-on sentences
oshit
That pre-reader sounds like a jerk.
Twilight Discovers Literary Analysis is "dull" and "not all that funny"? Hay, I was laughing so hard during the whole thing my jaw hurt!
By the way, why are the chapter titles in French ? Just wondering, partly because I'm French.
I have a thread here for posting EqD rejection (or revision) letters, so people have a better idea what dealing with EqD is like; and it would be nice if you added this one.
That letter, while painful, is IMHO more helpful than a hundred comments saying "I LOLed so hard!" I don't remember being struck by run-on sentences - I think the pre-readers have more-specific style preferences than I do - but the problem with getting the story on EqD is that it's just one funny concept, which starts to be boring after 2500 words (sorry, that's my take on it), which isn't long enough for EqD's silly 2500-word lower limit. If you want it on EqD, I'd say trim it ruthlessly to bring it down to 2500 words.
I also have a lousy memory. It's very frustrating, esp. when I have friends who can recall who was King of England at the start of the Crimean War because they read it once in a book five years ago, whereas I would not even remember whether I read the book. People get angry and think I'm lying or making excuses when I don't remember their name, or when I explain that the fact that I knew at 1:50PM that I was supposed to leave for a meeting at 1:55PM has no bearing at all on whether I will remember it at 1:55PM. Other people have this magical alarm clock in their head that keeps track of time, that they can set to say "Remind me of this in 5 minutes", and they can't imagine what it's like not to have one. I use alarm clocks, but if the alarm goes off, and I get up to leave and then somebody steps in and talks to me for thirty seconds, it's gone; I sit back down and forget I was supposed to go somewhere.
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tbh, the post wasn't exactly about the rejection letter; it's unfortunate that whatever pre-reader it was didn't like the humour of explaining humour. I already knew it was going to be rejected, mainly because it was a one-trick pony appealing to psychological manipulation and, due to its existence as a semi-metafic, heavily divisive on a subjective level.
EqD has that silly 'multitudinis imperitae non formido judicia' thing going on, despite its aims being primarily populist; I'm just satisfied that a great amount of people had the chance to look at it, even if it wasn't as many people as I might have liked.
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Because it's a snowclone of Barthes' celebrated sentence la naissance du lecteur doit se payer de la mort de l'auteur. Making it English would just be silly.
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I know, but you included it and it pains me to see representatives of one of the pillars of this community act in a way that is contradictory to the ideals the community stands for. There's being a critic and there's being a jerk, that guy is being a jerk. There are much more tactful ways to go about a rejection letter.
On topic, I'm with you on this whole memory thing. I often have ideas that manifest themselves as great but end up dying faded deaths within the hour. I find, though, that strong ideas tend to re-manifest themselves over and over again until I can't help but write them down in one form or another. And if planning a story is a chore, why not get a collaborator? Bouncing ideas off another person (or persons) helps immensely with the more tedious aspects of writing.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/shrug_Twilight_Sparkle.png
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Silly me, I didn't understand they were supposed to form a single sentence. Thinking about it, you probably meant "La naissance du personnage" ("personnage" being the French word for "character", while "caractère" roughly means "personality").