Today's submission comes from franztastisch, who has this to say:


Um. Ok so this was one of those things where you have an idea and you try and write it down and then half way through your brain flails and you get super stuck and you sit staring at your word doc going ffs. I mean, even this has bits in it that need changing and shit.

Basically, it was a "Clint used to be a bird" type story, because I had this idea about flying and the stuff he would miss.

( They were doing surveillance, watching a town house in Paris which was conveniently located opposite a cheerful café with hand painted signs and a red and white striped awning. )

A bunch of us are doing NaNoWriMo this year, so I asked the Best Bartenders of the Best Bar how they'd feel about doing a thread where we can talk about our stories, ask for (and give!) prompts, work out plot-holes, flail, and talk about how much we hate our lives and oh G-d what were we thinking. (Although that last might just be me.)

They graciously gave permission, and Lo! this thread was born.

Here's what I have in mind:

1. Comment with a brief synopsis of a scene, chapter, or heck your whole novel. Feel free to ask for prompts, for help with a plot point, or just to ask someone to pet your head and tell you it will be okay. Whatever you want or need -- this is your support thread.

2. Comment and offer prompts or support to your fellow writers!

3. Lather, rinse, repeat.

NOTE! You absolutely don't have to be doing NaNoWriMo to play! If you are working on any fic, feel free to post for prompts or help if you'd like. And absolutely anyone and everyone can offer prompts, help, meta or discussion.

MODS: THANK YOU! And please fix the tags if they need fixed?

Before we get started, we're down to our last few submissions again! Please feel free to send any snippets of unfinished fic to be.compromised@gmail.com, so we can make people tell you that you're awesome!


Today's snippet is from cybermathwitch. Take it away, Koren!

A/N: So there was a prompt during the prompt-a-thon made by anuna_81: Sword of Truth AU anyone? Where Natasha is Mord'Sith. (and Tony can be the wizard, and Steve can be the Seeker, and everyone else can help them out...) *g*

So... yeah, that happened. I already had the first bit on my computer before ever reading the prompt, actually.

Additional Note: So here's the thing. I'm a huge fan of the TV series, but not so much the books (I made it to book three, then I was done) so this is very much series canon and interpretation. Apparently my doing AUs is a thing? IDEK, I have no excuse except that the idea of Natasha as a Mord'Sith = perfect.

( Getting across the border wasn't nearly as difficult as she’d thought it would be. )

Due to the hurricane and having two days off of work, I totally forgot that yesterday was not, you know, Monday. So today is pretend Wednesday! Yay!

(And remember, bc.unfinished@gmail.com for all your Unfinished Fic Needs!)

Today's snipped it from ashen_key who says:
Heyhey guys! Ash here, with a snippet that I...hate least of the current lot of things I'm working where I'm not sure if I should continue or not. The prompt (from the kinkmeme) was for Natasha to be de-aged and suddenly the team has to deal with a deadly twelve-year-old girl. This is the start, and I slightly hate every word. It's a bit like drawing blood from a stone, but it does at least have a title and things I want to do and explore. SO, wondering what people think so far, particularly as I'm unsure on the team's voices and dynamics.
( Natasha couldn't remember what happened before the explosion. )

Today's unfinished fic is from our friend lar_laughs, who says:

Once upon a time, this was meant to be the third portion the New Mexico State of Mind 'verse. This was written quite a few months ago and I'm just not sure what I think of this idea any more. Mostly, I have no idea why Clint would go back to the circus.

(Remember, submit your unfinished snippets of >1000 words to bc.unfinished@gmail.com!)


( Read more... )

So today is Monday, and what a Monday it's been.

But enough about me; let's talk about you.

Are you working on any fic? Anything that has you stuck, like you don't know if it's even good any more?

FEAR NOT, FOR I AM HERE FOR YOU!

All you have to do is send a snippet of your current project to bc.unfinished@gmail.com (that's bc.unfinished@gmail.com!) and you could have your work featured as soon as WEDNESDAY on this very comm.

Please do this, we have no submissions and I want people to be more awesome.


PS: Bill Murray said it best at the end of Lost in Translation

ack! this is late but it's still wednesday somewhere in the world, right?

have you started a fic and then the mojo abandoned you? have you had the kernel of an idea that bloomed into a plot and then hit a brick wall a thousand metres high? then mail us an excerpt from 500 - 1000 words of your unfinished work(s) at bc.unfinished@gmail.com. we could use more submissions and you'll find the support you need here every wednesday... or, erm, almost every wednesday.


today's untitled submission comes from heartequals who said...

This is roughly the first 800 words of a 2000~ word fic (or it's at about 2000~ words now). idk it's like basically done but needs a couple more scenes but I haven't looked at it two months so yeah basically SQUEE WOULD BE REALLY APPRECIATED BECAUSE I AM SO DOWN ON IT. I also kinda forgot what I was writing and what the ending is supposed to be? uh. oops? The ;; designate scene changes.

It was inspired by this cover: http://heartequals.tumblr.com/post/32088772095/whatever-you-like-t-i-cover-by-anya-marina

Title: HELP NO TITLE

excerpt: ( Love is for children. Indulgence to the point of hedonism is not. )

EDIT: Please note that this is an old post that is now out of date. See instead our new Creative Support Directory!


If you have any questions on finding a beta, beta readers, beta reading, the relationship between writers and beta readers, and all that jazz we’ve been having a fantastic discussion HERE. One of the things that has come out of it is the idea of having a beta directory, to make finding a beta in this fandom easier and to help match writers and beta readers.

How this will hopefully work:

> Each beta will comment with a bunch of information that you can use to find someone/multiple someones that you think will work best for you. These betas are here because they like beta reading. They promise to help the best that they can. In return please do check the information they provide and play nice. This is intended to be a ‘no offence given, no offence taken’ zone :) If at any point either of you feel that it’s not working out then that’s okay and feel free to say so. Let’s keep this in the spirit of The Best Bar.

> This is a directory for beta readers in The Avengers Marvel Movie ‘Verse with a focus on Clint, Natasha, Clint and Natasha, and Clint/Natasha. Some of these beta readers may be willing to read Avengers stories with content from the Comics ‘Verse and/or without the focus being on these specific characters – please check each beta reader’s entry for this before contacting them.

> Please don’t reply to the comment with the beta’s information, that way they can edit their information as and when they need to. Instead please contact them according to their preferred method.

> If you have any questions, comments, ideas on how to improve this directory, etc. then please do share - there’s a thread at the start for that :) If you’d like to chat about beta reading in general please go to the creative support group post on betas.


Here’s an explanation of the information you can find on each beta for writers, and some hints for beta readers on how to comment (with a helpful form for betas to copy and paste into a comment at the end):

( Explanation behind the cut )

( And some things that writers might want to tell beta readers when they first contact them )

I’ve been on both sides of the writer-beta relationship and both come with lots of questions. I thought maybe we could have some discussion :)

> Finding a beta: always awkward. Do you leave a message on your own journal or on a community and hope that someone’s interested? Is it too cheeky to send someone a private message asking them? Is there beta etiquette?

(I noticed that a fair amount of people said on the Secret Santa post that they would be happy to beta. If there are people on the comm who beta, what would you think about maybe setting up a kind of beta directory for writers looking for betas?)

> Being a beta: has it’s own worries. How harsh do writers want you to be? How thorough? What kind of help are they looking for? What kind of help do betas offer?

> Keeping a beta: is there an etiquette on how many times you can ask someone to look over the same fic? Is there etiquette for how long a beta can take to look it over? Can you have more than one beta at a time? If one beta says one thing and the other something different what do you do? Do you introduce them to each other? If you need a beta again in the future do you have to start all over again or can you email the same beta and ask, ‘um, remember me?’

I’m guessing a lot of this is personal and that there are a lot of different views, and that I’ve missed a lot of questions, so bring on the discussion! And if you’re looking for a beta this could be a good place to start :)

Hey all, I am doing art for marvel_bang and am having a helluva time finding the right picture of Scarlett to finish it. I need her looking normal professional - and I think the white blouse/slacks combo she was in for Iron Man 2 right before she kicks Happy's butt in the ring would be perfect.

Unfortunately EVERYTHING I've found either has her hanging on the ropes of the ring, or is a total close up which I don't know if I need yet. I did find one of her holding the file, but it's horribly blurry and doesn't really help either.

And typical me luck - Iron Man 2 is the only Marvelverse film I DON'T Have yet, so I can't go screencap it for myself even.

So please - help me F-list-Kenobi! You're my only hope!

ETA: And damn ALREADY got linked to exactly what I needed. Best. Bar. Ever.

It's that time of the week again! You can submit between 500 - 1000 words of your unfinished fic to bc.unfinished@gmail.com and get the help you need. We could use some more submissions. Let's all be wonderbras of creative support, shall we?

Today's submission comes from cybermathwitch.

( A mixture of chemicals spreads and pools and she's lying dazed half in and half out of one puddle. )

It's that time of the week again! You can submit between 500 - 1000 words of your unfinished fic to bc.unfinished@gmail.com and get the help you need. Let's all be wonderbras of creative support, shall we?

Today's submission comes from hermyfan. She said: "This was written for a promptathon prompt that I found way too late and promptly lost the link to. Basically instead of becoming a paid assassin after leaving the Red Room, Natasha became an art thief. And plot happened! Except now I’m stuck-ish. Anyhoo…"

( In Madrid, he thinks he’s going mad. )

YOU GUYS. I was sitting here at work and I suddenly realized... IT'S WEDNESDAY!

That means it's time for the inaugural episode of Unfinished Fic Wednesday!


We're starting off this feature with an awesome submission from hermionerd who says, "This is the first 991 words of the 3300 in the Word document. They consist of an introduction (this plus an additional ~700 words) and an ending (which is a long and almost-finished sex scene that I wrote the day after the movie came out)."

( After the battle, they eat shawarma. )





(Want to be featured on Unfinished Fic Wednesday? Find out how here!)

as fandom's wonderbra i thought i'd bring this to your attention. just caught wind of it via tumblr. may it fuel your fires of creativity!

Clint/Natasha Week

Clintasha Week: an entire week dedicated to our favorite master assassins:

Clint Barton & Natasha Romanoff.

Each day of the week will have a different prompt and participants are encouraged to create whatever they wish for the prompt to contribute to the week.

These creations include, but are not limited to: fanart, fanfiction, graphics/gifs/gifsets, fanmixes, fanvideos, or any combination of the above.

The tentative week at the moment is:

monday, october 1st, 2012 - sunday, october 7th, 2012.

The Prompts

Day 1 - A Different Call
Day 2 - Budapest
Day 3 - Avengers
Day 4 - Strike Team: Delta
Day 5 - Fluff/Feelings
Day 6 - Friendship
Day 7 - AU
BONUS (any day) - Rennerson

If you are interested, please take a look!
Click here to take a look at extended explanations of each plot.
Click here if you have any questions.
Click here if you have any other prompt suggestions for the days.

Send us your tired, your poor, your lonely fics yearning to be finished!

( Whatchu talkin bout, Sam? )

So. cybermathwitch and I have vowed to undertake the study of vidding.

Which is to say we just have a lot of feels, okay? And other people aren't making the vids that are in our heads (except when they are, and that's pretty damned cool). But the point is, we want to learn how to do the thing that is make the pretties.

So, here we come to you, hat in hand, noble patrons of the best bar, asking for help.

Anyone here have links to good tutorials? What software do you use? Should we give this up as a bad job now and run screaming into the night before it consumes our souls? What is the average air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

HELP.

A few of us were talking over in the Creative Support Group Thread (CSGT?) about Camp NaNoWriMo. The site is here). In a nutshell, by signing up for CampNaNo, you're challenging yourself to write 50,000 words (a novel) in 31 days, beginning August 1st.

Since there isn't really much of a message board system over on site for Camp, I'm just gonna put this here so we have a place to cheer, commiserate, and have fun. (I have plot bunnies - literal little puff-ball bunnies with sticky feet attached to prompt cards - and I'm not afraid to use them**.)

ETA: Word Count Check-In

**If anyone needs them, the blue bunnies are object bunnies, the purple ones are conflict bunnies, the yellow ones are general bunnies (but not General bunnies), and the pink ones are relationship bunnies.