Bit of Ivory

Adventures in Fanfic
Well, it’s been an interesting couple of days. RJA reviewed my fic. She
didn’t like it. *cries* She said I did more “telling” than “showing”,
which is true. But how can you “show” someone’s complex inner thoughts?
I felt that the part where I needed to get across without looking deep
into the psyche—where it’s obvious that Harry likes Ginny more than
he’s admitting—was done quite well. She also said there was too much
exposition, which I guess *could* be true. But I think maybe she was
looking at my story in a different way than I intended. I was trying to
do a character study more than anything else. If the fic was meant to
be plot driven (which it wasn’t), then her argument would be valid. But
it’s not; the plot is there only to further explore the characters. I
never pretended to have a plot. My fic is really little more than
fluff. Anyway, what she saw as exposition, I meant as introspection. I
guess we just differ in what kinds of stories we like. Anyway, after
reassuring her that I don’t hate her (as if!), she suggested that maybe
I should have done it in first person. I can see where that might be
better. But I’m going to stick with it the way it is. I don’t think my
fic is bad– it just wasn’t the kind of fic RJA liked. And I can live
with that.
I haven’t gotten any more reviews since. Blast.
But there is some good news. I heard from Imogen this morning, and I’ve
been assigned a beta reader at GT. She didn’t expect that I’d need much
betaing, but she wanted someone to look it over just in case. Also
today, I got a message that my review board at Fiction Alley had been
started. According to the site, that means I should expect the story
itself to be up in 3 days or so.
So soon I’ll be on SQ, FF.net, FA, and GT.
Not bad for a first time author, eh?