for the most sensitive among us the noise can be too much.

I'm not a writer. I don't consider myself one. I'm not really good at it. I think once upon a time I had an imagination and creativity to write but I think that I've lost it. That said, I've always received pretty high grades when it came to English, grammar, phonics, reading comprehension, language, etc. I consistently wrote in college and graduated with a degree that is based on literary and visual analysis. I think that I have a pretty firm grasp on the English language. That said, when I see badly written fan fiction? I cringe.

Bad fic? It happens. For whatever reason, people make up what they make up without any regard or consideration of the personality of the characters that they're using. They write what they write without care or acknowledgment of their own terrible spelling and grammar. They don't bother with betas because a few fawning reviews means that they have fans and it doesn't matter what the writing looks like.

That bothers me. It bothers me. Every time someone spells something wrong and it's posted for all to see, it makes the angels cry (quote courtesy of Quinn from Glee). Someone on my flist has recently spoken a lot about the writing process and writing in fandoms and her perceptions are dead on. It's refreshing to find someone who's receptive to critique and commentary about her work. Of course, it wasn't always that way. It's never that way in the beginning. In the beginning, I imagine that people do think that they're good writers and for whatever reason (I blame fawning reviews with no critique) aren't receptive to criticism.

Fandom is supposed to be fun, yes? The stories are just stories. They're not up for Pulitzers or even national writing contests. I understand that. This is just a major, major, MAJOR pet peeve of mine that I want to address for myself and to share with anyone who may feel the same. Or! Feel differently. I'm open to both ideas. I'm not having fun if a large chunk of a story doesn't make sense. I sometimes try to look past the errors to just read the story itself but then it's bad characterization that gets to me.

So, if you're a writer or if you're an active reader, what in fandom fanfiction bothers you if you're bothered by anything at all? No specific fandom here. Any fandom at all. What will turn you off of a story? If you're a writer, why do you/would you not accept constructive criticism? Are you open to constructive criticism?

For starters today, birthday question. Is it lennongirl's birthday? Ani, if it's your birthday today or tomorrow or yesterday, happy birthday! I'm sure that you're doing something awesome over there at home. Hee.

Now in relation to Six Feet Under, as you know or don't know, I had a Six Feet Under marathon recently. I watched the series over a week and will probably be rewatching the episodes in the next few weeks to be able to digest more of it. It really is so poignant and so incredibly well-written and it probably has the best series finale that I've seen, ever. No weird fade to blacks, no last happy scene without knowing about what happened to them in the future. Charmed came close to this but of course not as powerful or insightful.

That said, there are a lot of issues brought up throughout the series but one in particular stood out to me. Lost recaps constantly observe that any time anyone on that show has an issue, it's usually a "Daddy Issue". Six Feet Under wasn't an exception. There was Keith's feelings toward his father. Nathaniel Sr. popped up throughout the entire series and the children analyzed their relationship with him. In Queer as Folk, Brian's father beat him and Michael never knew his father and Justin's dad disowned him.

Why do you think that television shows explore the father dynamic more than the mother dynamic? Is it more powerful to explore the more masculine dynamic? Is it just because fathers do often abandon their children or cause some kind of traumatic experience in childhood that continues to affect that child as an adult?

I'm always thinking about the parental dynamic in Disney movies because the fathers are almost always around and they kill the mothers. In movies that aren't animated, the girl raised by her father (without any siblings or female siblings) always appears as a tomboy because she hasn't had that female exposure. Disney female characters (princesses) seen so in touch with their femininity.

So, why is the paternal dynamic more prevalent in television?

Who is the person in fandom who called the parking lot where Justin got hit "the parking lot of violent homophobia"? I laughed my ass off about five seconds ago just thinking about it. This was around 2004 and it may have been a TWoP recap but now I'm not too sure.

I thought about it because I'm reading my memories and it was a conversation that I had with my bestie. :)

I know most of you watched the DVDs and bonus features. So, am I making this up or was there a feature with Bobby Gant in it which he was sitting at some restaurant with Chad Allen or someone else from his production team? I just vaguely remember it. And did they actually say where that place was? I just remember it was very, very noisy. Might've been Jerry's Deli.

Is anyone else experiencing some kind of weird view on their LJ or is it just me?

Edit: Meh. Temporarily changing it until I just put in a new layout. :|