You spend enough time in a particular fandom or "scene", and its weirdness and idiosyncrasies become normal through repeated exposure.

Except sometimes it hits you like a bolt out of the blue: Sweet Celestia, I just described how sexy my main character is by comparing her to "some kind of mythical sea monster that ate whales for breakfast". That's supposed to be SEXY. Man, this is weird.

But weird certainly beats the alternative.

For how short my stories are, it takes for-freaking-ever to complete them. Part of that can't be helped, since I have a life outside writing these stories. But part of it totally is my fault, because (1) I wait until I'm in a rather particular mood before I try to write these, and (2) I edit my stuff to a degree bordering on obsessive. Reread, revise, reread, revise... until I decide to publish more out of boredom with my own prose than out of certainty that it's finished.

Read More