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I’d love to be that tambourine.

I’d love to be that tambourine.

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The title is random yet Hanson related. Don’t even ask.

Just wanted to post a short blog to let everyone know that I’ve made some updates to the directory. I added around 35 new sites today and updated a few older links that didn’t work right. I also added a little pixel next to the new sites to let you guys see which ones are new. Obviously most of these are old sites that I’ve rediscovered, not actually new sites, but you know what I mean.

Speaking of, I’ve often contemplated adding a notation beside the sites that are currently updated. I’d love some opinions on that. Do you guys think it will be helpful? Should it be a notation like I currently use for adult content etc, or a pixel like I’ve used for “new” sites? Should I change all of these notations to pixels or would that be too busy and cluttered?

Let me know what you guys think.

As for NaNoWriMo, I’m sitting just under 10k right now. Very behind, but slowly making progress. Next week I will make a big push to catch up. Also, I’ve plans to spend December editing the rest of last year’s NaNo (Love and Other Socially Acceptable Emotions) and getting more of that posted, if anyone was actually reading it.

And that’s all for now. Please comment with your thoughts on the directory changes.

It’s November!

It’s November!

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…aka the month when fic writers everywhere go even more insane than usual! That’s right, it’s time for NaNoWriMo and once again, I’m participating, along with many other hanfic writers.

That means that other updates to the site will be basically nonexistent, although I did get the new spotlights up late last night and added a few sites to the directory today (bringing it up to a total of 1112). Everything else, if there is anything else to add, will have to wait until I have time in December.

NaNo was a brand new experience last year that really brought me a lot closer to the fandom. I was still sort of a new kid on the block then, or, more accurately, an old kid returning to the block. Participating in NaNo and the word sprints during that month helped me to make friends and really feel like part of the crowd.

It’s been a year now and I’m arguably even busier now than I was then — and that’s saying a lot, since I’m effectively unemployed now and no longer in college. But I’m still going to try. I would encourage anyone who writes to try it at least once. It teaches you a lot about writing; the focus is all on quantity, not quality, and it forces you to get outside of your comfort zone. It is definitely tough, but I can assure you that at the end of it, you’ll be a different — and better! — author.

If you aren’t doing NaNo already, it’s time to get planning for next year! You’ll be a whole twelve months ahead of the idiots like me who threw out their plans on October 31 and started from scratch.

A late night ramble on writer’s block.

A late night ramble on writer’s block.

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Long ago, on an earlier incarnation of this blog, I had a post about dealing with writer’s block. I’d spent the better part of my teen years and early twenties dealing with it, only to spend the past year writing more than ever before. So, at the time, I felt like an expert.

In the past two months, I feel like I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew about writing.

I did finish writing my baby (Cause and Effect, one of the stories that brought me back to hanfic last summer) this summer, although I’m still slogging through the edits. But I fell on my face when it came to writing my story for Boomerang. I’ve been fighting through the same oneshot since early July and haven’t even dreamt of entering the few oneshot challenges that have floated my way.

When real life gets in the way, there’s really nothing you can do to get your inspiration back. Sometimes the fanfic can be “a place to hide,” as it was for me when I was struggling to cope with high school. But these days, it’s almost a chore. When I feel like I’m letting down everyone in my real life and even myself, it’s hard to face the people I’m letting down online too — the people who read and enjoy my stories and who I can barely answer when they ask about updates.

I’m not looking for sympathy here. I know I’m not the only person going through lots of shit right now; the last few weeks/months have seen several fans taking hiatuses from hanfic for various reasons. It’s a shame that this coincides so perfectly with their tour. A lot of us are busy seeing them on tour (in fact, I might have come out ahead on my big bang fic if it weren’t for that concert in Louisville…), but that isn’t the case for everyone.

Seeing Hanson in concert this summer, for the very first time ever, reminded me of why I love them. Their passion for music and life is what gets me through some of my worst days. I’d love to have a tenth of the talent and ambition of those boys. But I have my own talent, even though I may fight with it some days, weeks, months and even years. There may be days when I want to throw in the towel, but I still have more stories. I still have more to give, more to get out of my brain, more to be.

So, I’ll get through this lull and I’ll be pulling for the rest of my hanfic friends to get through it as well.

In more upbeat, newsy sort of stuff — October spotlights will be coming soon and all the stories for Boomerang will be posted within the next week.

New layout and more!

New layout and more!

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After lots of waffling, debating, definitely deciding against it, and a little more waffling, I have officially converted the site to WordPress!

I made this choice mostly because I wanted to be able to incorporate the blog easily into the rest of the site, as I felt that was really a nicer format, and I wanted to be able to update easily and let you guys know when I had added new content here and there throughout the site. Since I’m no longer able to use Blogger for that purpose (as I did in the beginning), I decided to man up and learn how to use WordPress properly.

So here we are. I’m pretty sure the layout is functional and pretty in all browsers, but I can try to fix it if that isn’t actually the case. I’m certain that it looks better in basically any browser except Internet Explorer and while I’m sorry for that, there’s not much more I can do about it.

Because of all this and lots of bullshit in my real life, the monthly spotlights are a bit delayed. They will be up shortly, possibly with a new layout for that section. No promises on that, though, as I’m really quite sick of coding for the time being.

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