Fanfiction, and those pesky serial numbers

[azurelunatic]

Need to ask around for advice from people who started out in fanfic and wound up going pro-fic, about the differences. Especially for people who started out with fic, realized that these muses can't be written the way they need to be in their own universe, and wound up AU-ing and finally OU-ing and filing off enough serial numbers to make them OCs worthy of publication. I know that epicyclical is a fan writer gone pro. I know that at least one person on the friendslist has muses who are sufficiently discontent with their universe of origin that they're hammering on the walls asking for export.

Writing group helps its own, see.

Though the process can be occasionally hair-raising.

I need, in the morning, to link to that Making Light post, and also do a sum-up of the current situation with that woman who made that bad fanfic decision.

My hair is evidently extremely fine, and very soft. My hair care secrets are as follows:

• Never leave in a tangle. Detangle or cut.


• Weed out split ends for less-tangle happiness and overall hair health.


• Do not overdry by using too much shampoo. Scrub scalp. The rest of the hair will be fine without a complete soaping most of the time, though if there is grunge/dirt/product, this may require actual washing. Occasionally scrub scalp with nasty dandruff shampoo, because I need it. That stuff dries the hair like crazy, so only use a little.


• Aussie Mega conditioner. (I tried Moist, but it smelled rotten and made me sneeze.)


• Brush hair in the shower. Only brush wet hair under running water. Never allow hair to dry tangled.


• Aussie Knot Forgotten conditioner. See above about tangles.


• Braid hair in shower. Secure braid with elastics that don't tangle. For added win, use the small elastics that look like glorified braces rubberbands to bind the part of the hair that couldn't be braided. This prevents tangles and rather a lot of damage.


• Spray on a light oil as needed. I like to do this before the hair is dry and before sleep, so that it has a chance to dry and propagate. My favorite oil, I have no idea what the base oil is, but it started life as a "dry body oil spray", and is rose-scented. I'll have to find something else when I run out. Apricot oil is too heavy and makes my hair nasty. I may try almond oil next.


• Allow hair to dry overnight, naturally, without nasty damaging hairdryers. I stopped blow-drying my hair as a point of habit sometime in or before my teens, for reasons that may be lost to history but definitely seemed like a good idea at the time. I don't think a blowdryer has been anywhere near me for a good five years or more; the last time I had a blowdryer was to dry an unhappy cat.


• Keep hair as tangle-free as possible throughout the day. Go easy on the products.


• Secure hair with something if windy or driving with windows down, to beat the tangles.

Comments

[sraun]

ccfinlay did the 'filing off the serial numbers' thing to turn a Vorkosiverse fanfic into a short story that Analog bought.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

How... appropriate. Shards of Honor was originally a Trek-fic with the serial numbers filed off.

[azurelunatic]

As I was saying to hcolleen last night, it's completely OU and you can see that, but once you know where the serial numbers were, you can still see the file-marks. Though Barrayar hasn't got many file-marks left on it.

[azurelunatic]

Barrayar the planet.

[sraun]

Her Ladyship denies this with some enthusiasm - and has since at least 1997.

Quoting from http://lists.herald.co.uk/old-archives/lois-bujold/971016-918

Now, this Star Trek thing. This is going to be the third time I have knocked it on the head *this year*. It's getting profoundly irritating. *SoH is not now, and has never been, a Star Trek story.* Six *years* before I started writing it, to entertain myself driving to work, I had worked out a vaguely ST-universe two enemies-lost-on-planetside scenario. You have only my word for this, by the way, as I am reporting on my private thoughts here. Nothing was ever written. When I did sit down in 1982 to write my original novel, I used some elements from this scenario in the opening chapters, while also drawing on not less than my whole life and everything I'd learned in it. By the time the first word hit paper, I wanted to write my *own* books, thank you very much. And I did.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

*shrugs* She tells the story that way. Some of her first readers tell the story differently. So what's the truth? Dunno. They're *all* fiction authors, and even if you're not a fiction author, you tell the story of how it happened to suit yourself. Keep in mind that *legally* LMB cannot admit that Shards of Honor owes anything to Star Trek. It impairs her copyright claim, which impairs her ability to make a living. So the truth in this case is a grey fuzzy thing that's a bit hard to catch.

IMO, Shards of Honor clearly does have fan-fic elements, and there are places where the serial numbers definitely got filed off. It's nowhere near as polished and spiffy as her later work. That's cool. She keeps getting *better*.

[smmc.livejournal.com]

I can't comment on the fiction thing. I wish I could. It's a rather fascinating thing to know who did what, why, and when and how they got where they are. But I don't think I've ever followed any one author close enough to know. :)

The hair thing. Oils. Light oils (lighter than almod or apricot) would be jojoba (my first choice always), then grapeseed. Avacado is also a nice thing for hair, but can go racid just a tad bit faster. ;)

[azurelunatic]

I'll have to track down some jojoba oil, then. I only oil the hair from time to time, so I do want something that keeps well.