pensnest | (no subject)

Amidst a tumble of dragons and Gilbert and Sullivan, I should probably update.

DWTS. *sigh* I wasn't surprised, particularly since I had a dream this morning of meeting a despondent Joey in a bar and taking him to someone's oddly cubist flat where various LJers (wish I could remember who!) tried to console him until he walked sadly home. I sorta expected Apolo and Julianne to win. But what a shame. And now I have no dancing Joey to look forward to on Tuesday mornings. But I have files which fill me with delight. My favourites were the second Jive (wow!) and the first Foxtrot (magic!), but I love them all. Thank you,

daisydust.

ManBand is July, isn't it?

And then there was Remix. As those of you are interested have presumably already discovered, I was assigned Topaz to remix, and wrote World Tour (the Let's Go By Vegas mix), which was a lot of fun (and which, cunningly, got me out of writing the sex scenes, heh). I hope I've thanked those of you who sent me feedback. :-) I know I didn't get to all the stories - still haven't, too busy - but I managed to comment to a few. It's a shame to think that Remix 'traditionally' doesn't get much response in the way of feedback for the authors, and I'm not really sure why that should be, especially these days when we don't have the luxury of quality fresh fic popping up every day. It takes as much effort to produce a good Remix as to produce a first-generation story.

I've seen many interesting and thoughtful posts about how people figured out how to do their remix, and what kind of thing they may have been aiming for... in my case, I'm afraid it's really quite simple. I had My Brilliant Idea (Ooh! I'd love to see a story from the bodyguard's perspective. Hmm... I should write a story from the bodyguard's POV. And five minutes later, Wouldn't that be a cool idea for my remix!!) in the car somewhere on the M25, with

turloughishere, and was completely delighted to find that one of my victim's stories would actually work really well this way.

And as it happens, my Beast and I are indulging ourselves with a trip to Disneyworld in October, so I had The Unofficial Guide - and several Disney websites - close at hand. Seldom has research been so easy.

Also, yay for serendipity and a chance to meet!

Anyone else going to be in Disneyworld in the first half of October?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I wish I knew why remix feedback was so low too. I thought it was just timing or something like that in terms of my own story, but various people have said that it's always like that. Which, I don't get it. It's not like the stories don't take any less work just because they're based on something else.

Your big idea was a very cool one that worked really well. I take it that's how Turlough wasn't allowed to guess *g*

I have a theory on that. I know a lot of people simply do not read remix. Myself included. [which is odd, since I am often beta-ing several stories] But, many people do not like remix, for varying reasons, and therefor simply do not read.

I do agree on your point that they take as much work as writing an original story.

It's a theory that works for me, especially as until I actually took part remix wasn't that important to me either. I mean, I'd read but there was no real urgency to do so. I guess I had the impression that the stories would be copies of the original, which they aren't at all.

So I guess I can't go around moaning about lack of interest when I've been just as guilty.

It's not that I find it unimportant, I don't care for it. [I am not at all saying it's wrong or bad or anything like that. Simply that it's not my cup of tea] I didn't read because I was never comfortable with the idea. The stories are not copies of the original, I agree there as well, and I realize it's all voluntary. I have always thought it was great people liked it so much and participated year after year, but it still isn't for me.

as to moaning lack of interest... sure you can! lol. what fun would the world be if you couldn't get in a little moaning now and then? :-)

Then you're a star taking so much time to help with my story. What with the sex, especially the car sex and not liking the actual challenge itself. One day I'll give you something to beta that you actually like. No Lance in bathrooms blowing strangers or creeping angst ;)

But when I moan I feel bad that people think I'm saying read and give me comments. Which yeah, is what I am saying, but it's still rude. But I shall keep moaning occasionally *g*

It's so different to beta a story than to feedback one. Beta-ing remix has never bothered me. It doesn't involve my opinion on the idea of remix, therefore just like beta work on any other story. However, I will not say no to someday getting a lovely trickyfish story to beta from you. lol.

I wasn't sure that Turlough would remember the conversation without prompting, but I thought the story would very likely jog her memory!

It's funny that remix feedback is expected to be low, because really, from this crop, there were quite a few stories which could perfectly reasonably be called original stories. My remixer did a 'prequel' to the Hogwarts Christmas story, f'rinstance. And I just read a remix

phaballa did for a different story, which turned out to be a story I hadn't seen before. Joy!

I still haven't read your story, mostly because I took a look at the original story and balked at the pairing. I think I'll have to skip my usual rutine this time and read the remix first and if I feel like it read the original afterwards. And yes, I did remember our conversation! It was actually the first thing I thought when the remix went live, "I wonder if Pen managed to find a story that she could rewrite from the bodyguards pov?" :-)

As a non-writer I can understand the low feedback to some degree, not that the remix is only of interest to the participants but more that it's mostly of interest to other writers. I think you have to be fairly interested in the writing process itself to want to see what another writer makes of someone's story.

This is the first year I've had much interest in it myself and I think it's because I now know several writers better and have heard them talk about their stories and the writing process. It's made me more interested in the different ways a story can be told and more aware of the different things you can do with a given premise, things I didn't really think much about before. Before I always looked at the original stories and if they were stories I liked, or had pairings I liked, I read the remix, but there's always been a minority of remix stories that fill these criteria. It seems to me that, for some reason, it's the weirder, edgier, and angstier stuff that often get remixed and those kind of stories probably have a more limited audience from the beginning. I think. Perhaps.

I *think* it may well be a challenge that particularly appeals to writers who are interested in the craft of writing - at least, I can't find a better way of putting it than that. We all feel the desire to write down our own story, of course, but not everyone who writes wants a challenge that so particularly addresses the 'how do you write?' question.

Perhaps writers who like this craft challenge have a greater tendency to be writers who will produce sharp-edged work of their own..? Or perhaps, the sharp-edged ones are easier to remix? Hmm. It'd be hard to remix a comic story skilfully and keep it funny - though it can be done.

Note that the only two JuC stories I have written were done for challenges!

Yes, it struck me after I'd written that that there's probably only a particular type of writer that's drawn to remixes, as you said, not all writers. The more self-aware, "intellectual" type perhaps. Which I think is the type of writer that usually produce the edgier and more "difficult" kind of stories. Not that there isn't a broad spectra of remix writers and the kind of stories they write, but I really think that if you looked at popslash as a whole and compared it to the remixes the proportion of that kind of writer and story is much higher in the remixes.