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[RokofAges75]

We were talking about movie scores on Twitter, so I thought I'd bring that conversation here, since that's my typical writing music.  If I remember correctly, you don't usually listen to music while you write, right, Mare?  Is that still true?

I go through phases as far as what I listen to (or don't listen to) while I'm writing, but in general, I find that instrumental music helps me focus.  I've been firmly back on the music kick for my past couple stories.  I've found a few YouTube channels that have ambient music from movies set to pretty backgrounds or videos.  My favorite is Ambient Worlds because their videos are really pretty and an hour or more long, so I can put them on my TV for background ambience when I write in my living room.  My other favorite is The Ambient Score, which has shorter videos that are typically around 15-30 minutes.

It's been fun discovering good music from movies I haven't seen.  I really love the score from The Last of the Mohicans.  I've never watched the movie, but I kept coming back to the music from it while writing My Brother's Keeper.  I listened to that and "Arrival of the Birds," which was used in The Theory of Everything, a lot.  How to Train Your Dragon also has a really good score.  One day, I clicked on a video of music from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and as I was listening, I was like, "This is just an instrumental version of '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' by Bryan Adams."  That was when I learned that that song was from that movie.  Never knew!

My nerdiest new music discovery of the past year or so has been this playlist of medieval renditions of Star Wars music: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9PLUrw0CbcSx6jZ5sO1W8wY_P0QsiVkb&si=h8FF_MlZrOR28b5M  Apparently, there is this whole genre of music called "bardcore" that does medieval-sounding covers of pop songs.  It's pretty great!  Might be some fun music for your workouts, cooking, and cleaning!

Today I've been on a James Newton Howard kick.  I love a lot of his scores, especially The Village, Lady in the Water, and King Kong.  He's one of my go-tos when I can't decide what to listen to.

Do you have any recommendation s for me?  I tend to like pretty, sad-sounding music when I'm writing, but sometimes I go the opposite direction and listen to more epic, action-packed stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean and any John Williams score just because it's good.

I hope you don't mind all my posts today! I'm clearly in summer mode and having the kind of week where I'm glued to my computer.  But I've been doing more writing than playing The Sims, so that's progress!

[mare]

Thank you for the AO3 info. I did what you mentioned, and I was able to find my work.

I'm not sure if I'd still be able to write if I were still working. I had taken so much time off from writing that if I was actually still teaching and decided to make my way back, I'm sure I'd be going at a much slower pace, if any at all. It makes sense you really slowed down when you were going for your masters. With all the extra work.

I love that people clicked on your story based on the tags you used. Some of those tags are just...yikes! in general. Let alone that people really use them for real stories. LOL

I don't think I could do the little bit each day way of writing, because of my awful memory. I'd most likely just start repeating myself and the particular way I write, you would probably be able to tell that's what I was doing. I've never been a very good stop and go writer.

[mare]

We were talking about movie scores on Twitter, so I thought I'd bring that conversation here, since that's my typical writing music.  If I remember correctly, you don't usually listen to music while you write, right, Mare?  Is that still true?

I go through phases as far as what I listen to (or don't listen to) while I'm writing, but in general, I find that instrumental music helps me focus.  I've been firmly back on the music kick for my past couple stories.  I've found a few YouTube channels that have ambient music from movies set to pretty backgrounds or videos.  My favorite is Ambient Worlds because their videos are really pretty and an hour or more long, so I can put them on my TV for background ambience when I write in my living room.  My other favorite is The Ambient Score, which has shorter videos that are typically around 15-30 minutes.

It's been fun discovering good music from movies I haven't seen.  I really love the score from The Last of the Mohicans.  I've never watched the movie, but I kept coming back to the music from it while writing My Brother's Keeper.  I listened to that and "Arrival of the Birds," which was used in The Theory of Everything, a lot.  How to Train Your Dragon also has a really good score.  One day, I clicked on a video of music from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and as I was listening, I was like, "This is just an instrumental version of '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' by Bryan Adams."  That was when I learned that that song was from that movie.  Never knew!

My nerdiest new music discovery of the past year or so has been this playlist of medieval renditions of Star Wars music: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9PLUrw0CbcSx6jZ5sO1W8wY_P0QsiVkb&si=h8FF_MlZrOR28b5M  Apparently, there is this whole genre of music called "bardcore" that does medieval-sounding covers of pop songs.  It's pretty great!  Might be some fun music for your workouts, cooking, and cleaning!

Today I've been on a James Newton Howard kick.  I love a lot of his scores, especially The Village, Lady in the Water, and King Kong.  He's one of my go-tos when I can't decide what to listen to.

Do you have any recommendation s for me?  I tend to like pretty, sad-sounding music when I'm writing, but sometimes I go the opposite direction and listen to more epic, action-packed stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean and any John Williams score just because it's good.

I hope you don't mind all my posts today! I'm clearly in summer mode and having the kind of week where I'm glued to my computer.  But I've been doing more writing than playing The Sims, so that's progress!

Yup, still need complete quiet when I write. If the TV is on in the other room, I have to shut it off or close the door. If I were to listen to music, I'd be completely distracted and just end up listening to the music and conduct along. It's a musician thing. I don't think any of us can just listen to an instrumental piece without conducting it, especially if your bands have played them and with a lot of those pieces they have. LOL

I tend to enjoy TV scores more than movie although my go to movie score guy without a doubt is Danny Elfman. I can listen to his music all the time. The Braveheart soundtrack is great as well. Don't recall who that was though. When I want to feel sad it's, John Williams score to Schindler's list. The main theme music in particular.

As far as TV. Can't go wrong with Ramin Djawadi - he did the music for game of Thrones. Bear McCready, the Battle Star Galactica and See soundtracks are great. Nicholas Brittel who scored all of Succession, and Andor, which is another great score.

A great sad sounding track Langsam - we gave it a go. Nicholas Britell - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkSNb2iVyXI

There's also Andante Risoluto -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2l-GKWBbtw

okay now I'm going down the rabbit hole, so I need to stop trying to find all these soundtracks and write. LOL

I love when you post a lot! Keep it coming. I have to say I'm back because I didn't write a single word this morning. LOL

[RokofAges75]

Thank you for the AO3 info. I did what you mentioned, and I was able to find my work.

I'm not sure if I'd still be able to write if I were still working. I had taken so much time off from writing that if I was actually still teaching and decided to make my way back, I'm sure I'd be going at a much slower pace, if any at all. It makes sense you really slowed down when you were going for your masters. With all the extra work.

I love that people clicked on your story based on the tags you used. Some of those tags are just...yikes! in general. Let alone that people really use them for real stories. LOL

I don't think I could do the little bit each day way of writing, because of my awful memory. I'd most likely just start repeating myself and the particular way I write, you would probably be able to tell that's what I was doing. I've never been a very good stop and go writer.

It's definitely harder to write when I'm working full time.  It was almost impossible when I had homework to do for my master's classes on top of teaching, so I really only had time to devote to fanfic on my breaks and over the summer.

It has helped me to get into the routine of writing in the morning instead of trying to do it in the evening after I get off work because I'm usually too exhausted.  But working on it a little bit every day at least keeps me invested and makes it easier to get started on weekends when I have more time.  It does sometimes lead to me accidentally repeating myself though LOL.  If it's within the same chapter, I usually catch it when I'm rereading and revising, but I've also started using the search tool on my site to look up words and phrases that I might have used in previous chapters of the same story to see how many similar discussions the characters have already on whatever topic LOL.

Yeah, some of those tags... yikes is right!  I took them all from existing tags on other people's stories and laughed the whole time I was adding them all.  I can't imagine trying to write about some of that stuff, even as a joke, let alone seriously.  Maybe it's easier when it's about purely fictional characters, but that may make it even funnier, especially when you consider some of the media people write fanfic for.

That made me think of another question:  Do you find it easier to torture fictional characters than the Backstreet Boys?  I know you never wanted to kill a BSB in a fic, but would you kill a Succession character?  Just wondering if your mindset on that kind of stuff has changed now that you're not writing RPF.

[RokofAges75]

What you said about wanting to conduct the music makes sense!  I didn't think about that, but I can see how that would be distracting.  I can't usually listen to music with lyrics for the same reason; I tend to sing along and get distracted.  If I'm already in the zone and really inspired, then sometimes it's fine, but that's not usually the case.

Thanks for the music recommendation s!  I like all the composers you named.  Braveheart is one of my all-time favorite scores!  That was by James Horner, who is probably my favorite composer.  He also did Titanic and Avatar, which has a beautiful score as well.  Schindler's List is on my writing playlist too, as is music from Game of Thrones.  I haven't watched or heard the music from Battlestar Galactica, but Bear McCreary also did the music for The Walking Dead, which was also great.

I like the piano music from Succession!  I enjoyed both the ones you linked.  It's interesting listening to music from something I haven't watched because I don't associate it with a specific scene like you probably do.  In some ways that's better for writing because I can make it fit whatever situation I'm writing about, but I always wonder how it was used originally.

[mare]

I am always afraid I'm repeating myself. Halfway through my last chapter, I had written a flashback about the first time they called themselves a couple and I had to stop because I thought I vaguely remembered coming up with a flashback about how they became a couple earlier in the story and to make matters worse, it wasn't even the same scenario. I made two different stories about the first time they dated. LOL I'm glad I caught that.

When I edit, I find myself using a lot of the same words for no reason. I'm a real 'though' culprit. I must delete about 5 of those per chapter. I put them in everywhere. I also tend to use way too many hes in a paragraph. One thing I have changed from when I used to write BSB to now, with the exception of my very first story, all my other ones have been in third person. In BSB I used to always write in first person and only occasionally use third. Because of that, sometimes my descriptors are lacking. He is the worst. I find myself coming up with such stupid things to say. "The well-mannered kidnapper said," being my favorite.

Torturing characters is much easier than doing it to real life people. I don't feel as guilty, especially when I go into their emotional states and family troubles. I mean that's what the show is all about so it's fine to talk about Ken having suicidal tendencies or Roman having an eating disorder. But saying those things about Nick was a little harder because he was a train wreck in real life. About killing. I'm still not sure if I would kill one of them off. It wouldn't be an ethical thing for me though, just doesn't seem like something I'd want to do, for now at least.

[mare]

Oh, yeah...singing as well. I would totally sing along. I forgot to mention when I replied to your earlier post, that I have listened to a lot of those bard core things. I used to use them in my classroom when talking about arranging and how you can change the genre of a song while still keeping the melody and words.

I'm not really familiar with James Newton Howard. I'll have to listen to him. I think I've told you before that I never watched The Walking Dead, but I would sometimes just watch until the theme song played then change the channel. Lol Apparently Bear does a lot of video game soundtracks too. I wasn't aware of that. That's a whole other beast.

Yes, those two songs are from the final season. I think it has the best music then the other three. I completely relate them to what happened in the show. The We Gave it A Go I would not have much cared about because it was a Tom and Shiv scene, but the music had me balling. And the other one was from the very final scene of the series. When it stops the show ends.

I decided to come back before bed to answer these. I did manage to write at least a half a page today so yay me!

[RokofAges75]

I am always afraid I'm repeating myself. Halfway through my last chapter, I had written a flashback about the first time they called themselves a couple and I had to stop because I thought I vaguely remembered coming up with a flashback about how they became a couple earlier in the story and to make matters worse, it wasn't even the same scenario. I made two different stories about the first time they dated. LOL I'm glad I caught that.

When I edit, I find myself using a lot of the same words for no reason. I'm a real 'though' culprit. I must delete about 5 of those per chapter. I put them in everywhere. I also tend to use way too many hes in a paragraph. One thing I have changed from when I used to write BSB to now, with the exception of my very first story, all my other ones have been in third person. In BSB I used to always write in first person and only occasionally use third. Because of that, sometimes my descriptors are lacking. He is the worst. I find myself coming up with such stupid things to say. "The well-mannered kidnapper said," being my favorite.

Torturing characters is much easier than doing it to real life people. I don't feel as guilty, especially when I go into their emotional states and family troubles. I mean that's what the show is all about so it's fine to talk about Ken having suicidal tendencies or Roman having an eating disorder. But saying those things about Nick was a little harder because he was a train wreck in real life. About killing. I'm still not sure if I would kill one of them off. It wouldn't be an ethical thing for me though, just doesn't seem like something I'd want to do, for now at least.

Sorry I didn't reply yesterday; I'm in Michigan visiting my sister.  Heading home Sunday!

I'm glad you caught that before you posted and had two different flashbacks with two different version of how they became a couple LOL.  I wonder if your readers would have noticed?  I always worry about messing up details like that, especially in a long story where it gets hard to remember everything I've written.  I've gotten better at keeping a list of character notes in my outline and updating it whenever I add something like that to the story so I can keep it consistent, but I still catch those inconsistencie s sometimes.

I've learned through Reddit that third person POV is heavily preferred over first person for fanfics, so that's probably a good thing that you switched.  My current story is in first person because its predecessor was, but I'll probably go back to third person after this unless I have a good reason to write in first.  I prefer first for slash stories because it cuts down on the overuse of male pronouns and makes things less confusing, but otherwise, I prefer third.  I don't mind writing or reading first, though, as long as it's in past tense.  I'm not a fan of present tense stories; I hope that trend goes away soon.

I'm not surprised to hear that torturing fictional characters is easier.  I still struggle with that RPF guilt, although obviously not enough to make me stop LOL.  It goes back to what we said before about seeing them differently as fanfic characters than we do as their real life selves.  If I couldn't separate fiction from reality, I would not be able to write half the stuff I do.

[RokofAges75]

Oh, yeah...singing as well. I would totally sing along. I forgot to mention when I replied to your earlier post, that I have listened to a lot of those bard core things. I used to use them in my classroom when talking about arranging and how you can change the genre of a song while still keeping the melody and words.

I'm not really familiar with James Newton Howard. I'll have to listen to him. I think I've told you before that I never watched The Walking Dead, but I would sometimes just watch until the theme song played then change the channel. Lol Apparently Bear does a lot of video game soundtracks too. I wasn't aware of that. That's a whole other beast.

Yes, those two songs are from the final season. I think it has the best music then the other three. I completely relate them to what happened in the show. The We Gave it A Go I would not have much cared about because it was a Tom and Shiv scene, but the music had me balling. And the other one was from the very final scene of the series. When it stops the show ends.

I decided to come back before bed to answer these. I did manage to write at least a half a page today so yay me!

I bet the kids enjoyed listening to the bardcore songs.  I think they're so fun!

James Newton Howard composed the music for The Hunger Games trilogy and most of M. Night Shyamalan's movies, among other things.  He isn't as well-known as composers like John Williams and Danny Elfman, but I really enjoy a lot his scores.  They make great writing music because they can create a mood without being distracting.

The Walking Dead does have a great theme song!  I appreciate shows that still have theme songs and credit sequences.  Game of Thrones is another really good one, so good that they've reused the same theme song for House of the Dragon.

You'll probably hear the Succession theme in the Olympics this year, unless Ilia Malinin changes his figure skating program before then.  That was a great choice of music for him.  I've gotten some good writing music from watching figure skating, especially in other Olympic years, so I'm looking forward to that!

[mare]

Sorry I didn't reply yesterday; I'm in Michigan visiting my sister.  Heading home Sunday!

I'm glad you caught that before you posted and had two different flashbacks with two different version of how they became a couple LOL.  I wonder if your readers would have noticed?  I always worry about messing up details like that, especially in a long story where it gets hard to remember everything I've written.  I've gotten better at keeping a list of character notes in my outline and updating it whenever I add something like that to the story so I can keep it consistent, but I still catch those inconsistencie s sometimes.

I've learned through Reddit that third person POV is heavily preferred over first person for fanfics, so that's probably a good thing that you switched.  My current story is in first person because its predecessor was, but I'll probably go back to third person after this unless I have a good reason to write in first.  I prefer first for slash stories because it cuts down on the overuse of male pronouns and makes things less confusing, but otherwise, I prefer third.  I don't mind writing or reading first, though, as long as it's in past tense.  I'm not a fan of present tense stories; I hope that trend goes away soon.

I'm not surprised to hear that torturing fictional characters is easier.  I still struggle with that RPF guilt, although obviously not enough to make me stop LOL.  It goes back to what we said before about seeing them differently as fanfic characters than we do as their real life selves.  If I couldn't separate fiction from reality, I would not be able to write half the stuff I do.

Oh, fun! I hope you're having a great time.

I sometimes wonder about that too. If the readers catch all the inconsistencie s. Sometimes when I go reread an older chapter to remember something I'll wince because I notice oops the name of the store I used changed or I forgot he mentioned that already. No one's ever said anything.

I know when I read things, I never really notice. I'm reading a novel now that's a sequel to a story I read forever ago, and I really loved that novel but for the life of me, I can't place the main character of this one at all! I mean I know she was in the first one because I remember the description, but who she was and what she did, no clue! I even went back and checked the Goodreads summary and my own review and neither of them mention this person! I feel like how I do when someone tries to friend me on FB and we have a million friends in common and supposedly were in the same click but I have no clue who they are! Anway, maybe after a few chapters, I'll figure out who the main character is. I guess the good news is, you can read this sequel without having to have read the first book. LOL

Not to go off on a tangent, but this one girl named Leslie, who always comments on my posts and always talks about oh my god I remember when we went there! That was so much fun!!! And I STILL for the life of my have no idea who she is! I have messaged all of my high school friends and most of them are the same as me. It's like this person was a part of our group, which admittedly was big, but not one of us has a clue who she is!

I always prefer reading and writing in first person, but I know what you mean. It seems like the general consensus enjoys third person. Most of the things I read are third person, but sometimes there is too much emphasis on description and not enough dialogue and for me the dialogue is what moves a story along.

It is a good thing we can separate real from fiction. I try to do that with people too. Not to always judge them for certain things they say and try to separate that from other things I like about them. If I didn't do that, i'd hardly have any friends. Especially when it comes to politics! LOL

[mare]

I bet the kids enjoyed listening to the bardcore songs.  I think they're so fun!

James Newton Howard composed the music for The Hunger Games trilogy and most of M. Night Shyamalan's movies, among other things.  He isn't as well-known as composers like John Williams and Danny Elfman, but I really enjoy a lot his scores.  They make great writing music because they can create a mood without being distracting.

The Walking Dead does have a great theme song!  I appreciate shows that still have theme songs and credit sequences.  Game of Thrones is another really good one, so good that they've reused the same theme song for House of the Dragon.

You'll probably hear the Succession theme in the Olympics this year, unless Ilia Malinin changes his figure skating program before then.  That was a great choice of music for him.  I've gotten some good writing music from watching figure skating, especially in other Olympic years, so I'm looking forward to that!

I enjoy finding out about new composers. I'll listen. I can already imagine what he sounds like based on the movies you mentioned.

Most of my favorite shows have had stand out theme songs. It's one of the things that always pulls me in. I am one of those annoying people that never ever skips the intro when given the chance. Sometimes that ends up being the best part of the episode. LOL Another killer theme song is The West Wing.

I have seen his program a lot. Kieran's wife posted it on Instagram. That's actually not the theme song though. It's more of a mashup of the background music. Including the Etude I posted earlier. I use the theme for my ring tone! I never answer my phone but I let it ring all the way through so I can hear the song! LOL Another classic!

[RokofAges75]

Oh, fun! I hope you're having a great time.

I sometimes wonder about that too. If the readers catch all the inconsistencie s. Sometimes when I go reread an older chapter to remember something I'll wince because I notice oops the name of the store I used changed or I forgot he mentioned that already. No one's ever said anything.

I know when I read things, I never really notice. I'm reading a novel now that's a sequel to a story I read forever ago, and I really loved that novel but for the life of me, I can't place the main character of this one at all! I mean I know she was in the first one because I remember the description, but who she was and what she did, no clue! I even went back and checked the Goodreads summary and my own review and neither of them mention this person! I feel like how I do when someone tries to friend me on FB and we have a million friends in common and supposedly were in the same click but I have no clue who they are! Anway, maybe after a few chapters, I'll figure out who the main character is. I guess the good news is, you can read this sequel without having to have read the first book. LOL

Not to go off on a tangent, but this one girl named Leslie, who always comments on my posts and always talks about oh my god I remember when we went there! That was so much fun!!! And I STILL for the life of my have no idea who she is! I have messaged all of my high school friends and most of them are the same as me. It's like this person was a part of our group, which admittedly was big, but not one of us has a clue who she is!

I always prefer reading and writing in first person, but I know what you mean. It seems like the general consensus enjoys third person. Most of the things I read are third person, but sometimes there is too much emphasis on description and not enough dialogue and for me the dialogue is what moves a story along.

It is a good thing we can separate real from fiction. I try to do that with people too. Not to always judge them for certain things they say and try to separate that from other things I like about them. If I didn't do that, i'd hardly have any friends. Especially when it comes to politics! LOL

Yup, it's been nice to see everybody!

Generally, I don't think most readers pay as much attention to the details of our stories as we do, but then there are those that are either very invested in the story or just have a good memory for details and will recall something or catch a mistake I wouldn't have expected them to.  Since a lot of your readers seemed to care more about Roman and Gerri's relationship, I wonder if they would have noticed if you changed the back story of that.

I don't tend to notice or fixate on details like that unless it's something I've read multiple times or something about it was particularly memorable.  I'm sure it's even harder to remember characters when you read as many books as you do.  I watched the first episode of Season 2 of House of the Dragon earlier this week and had to pause and look up a character list to remind myself of the kids' names and who they belonged to because all their names are very similar, and I couldn't keep track.  I probably should have rewatched Season 1 before I started Season 2 because it's been a while. I remembered the most important plot points but forgot some of the details like that.

That's funny about your "friend"(?) Leslie that no one quite remembers!  I hope she really did go to high school with you and isn't just some creeper who's pretending to have known you.  Do you have yearbooks you could look back at?

It was interesting to me to see such a strong preference for third person among fanfic readers because first person seems more popular for published fiction nowadays.  What I've gathered is that there is a different expectation for fanfic because it's about familiar characters; readers want to see those characters' names repeated throughout the story and don't think writers should be writing from those characters POV unless that's how the original source media was written.  Hunger Games fanfic written from Katniss's POV or Twilight fanfic written from Bella's might be fine, but they don't like Harry Potter fanfic written from Harry's POV because those books were originally in third person.  I can kind of see the logic in that, even though it doesn't matter to me.  I just choose the POV that seems like it will work best for the story I'm writing.  First person works well for stories that focus on the emotional experience of just one or two main characters, whereas I prefer third person for stories with a lot of important characters.  I agree with you that third person tends to be more descriptive, though, which can be a good or bad thing.  I like description, but I also find myself skimming past paragraphs of description to get to the dialogue when I read - like you said, the dialogue is what moves the story along.  I was more prone to writing in purple prose when I wrote in third person.  I sometimes have a harder time maintaining a consistent tone when I write in first person, though.  Sometimes it sounds like a real person telling a story, and sometimes it sounds too literary.

LOL Yes, that is a good point - you have to separate the art from the artist and the politics from the person.  Otherwise, it would be hard to be friends with or a fan of anyone.  If they're a good person otherwise, I can usually overlook major differences in opinion/preference on politics, sports teams, etc.

[RokofAges75]

I enjoy finding out about new composers. I'll listen. I can already imagine what he sounds like based on the movies you mentioned.

Most of my favorite shows have had stand out theme songs. It's one of the things that always pulls me in. I am one of those annoying people that never ever skips the intro when given the chance. Sometimes that ends up being the best part of the episode. LOL Another killer theme song is The West Wing.

I have seen his program a lot. Kieran's wife posted it on Instagram. That's actually not the theme song though. It's more of a mashup of the background music. Including the Etude I posted earlier. I use the theme for my ring tone! I never answer my phone but I let it ring all the way through so I can hear the song! LOL Another classic!

Here is a nice medley of James Newton Howard's music from M. Night Shyamalan's movies: https://youtu.be/EO-q-24cXEY?si=1XpTAALCU-RnCw3G  The Village and Lady in the Water are two of my favorites of his scores.

It depends on the show, but there are some I never or rarely skip the intro for - Game of Thrones, Dexter, ER, and The Walking Dead, to name a few.  Streaming has been good for show intros because they're not limited on time like network shows, and they can give the option to skip intros for those who find them annoying when they're binging a show.

[mare]

Yup, it's been nice to see everybody!

Generally, I don't think most readers pay as much attention to the details of our stories as we do, but then there are those that are either very invested in the story or just have a good memory for details and will recall something or catch a mistake I wouldn't have expected them to.  Since a lot of your readers seemed to care more about Roman and Gerri's relationship, I wonder if they would have noticed if you changed the back story of that.

I don't tend to notice or fixate on details like that unless it's something I've read multiple times or something about it was particularly memorable.  I'm sure it's even harder to remember characters when you read as many books as you do.  I watched the first episode of Season 2 of House of the Dragon earlier this week and had to pause and look up a character list to remind myself of the kids' names and who they belonged to because all their names are very similar, and I couldn't keep track.  I probably should have rewatched Season 1 before I started Season 2 because it's been a while. I remembered the most important plot points but forgot some of the details like that.

That's funny about your "friend"(?) Leslie that no one quite remembers!  I hope she really did go to high school with you and isn't just some creeper who's pretending to have known you.  Do you have yearbooks you could look back at?

It was interesting to me to see such a strong preference for third person among fanfic readers because first person seems more popular for published fiction nowadays.  What I've gathered is that there is a different expectation for fanfic because it's about familiar characters; readers want to see those characters' names repeated throughout the story and don't think writers should be writing from those characters POV unless that's how the original source media was written.  Hunger Games fanfic written from Katniss's POV or Twilight fanfic written from Bella's might be fine, but they don't like Harry Potter fanfic written from Harry's POV because those books were originally in third person.  I can kind of see the logic in that, even though it doesn't matter to me.  I just choose the POV that seems like it will work best for the story I'm writing.  First person works well for stories that focus on the emotional experience of just one or two main characters, whereas I prefer third person for stories with a lot of important characters.  I agree with you that third person tends to be more descriptive, though, which can be a good or bad thing.  I like description, but I also find myself skimming past paragraphs of description to get to the dialogue when I read - like you said, the dialogue is what moves the story along.  I was more prone to writing in purple prose when I wrote in third person.  I sometimes have a harder time maintaining a consistent tone when I write in first person, though.  Sometimes it sounds like a real person telling a story, and sometimes it sounds too literary.

LOL Yes, that is a good point - you have to separate the art from the artist and the politics from the person.  Otherwise, it would be hard to be friends with or a fan of anyone.  If they're a good person otherwise, I can usually overlook major differences in opinion/preference on politics, sports teams, etc.

I don't tend to pay attention to the small details either unless it's something that is repeated throughout. Like if they talk about so and so's auburn hair and use it a few times but then two chapters later they say that person has blonde hair. I notice things like that, but otherwise, it has to be pretty major for me to remember.

I have a heck of a time remembering plot lines from one season to the next, especially if it's been more than a summer we'd have to wait between seasons. Remember, back in the old days when we used to only have to wait three months for a new season which was on average 20 - 22 episodes long? Those were the days! I feel like as the wait time between seasons gets longer, the episode count gets shorter. Now it seems most of them are decreasing from 10 to 8. I know it's nice for the actors because they can work on multiple things now instead of being stuck to one series until it ends, but for the rest of us, it sucks! Like all this waiting for Stranger Things and it's only going to be 8 episodes long. It almost seems like a waste of time, unless they are the best episodes ever!

Leslie definitely did go to my high school. The best we can come up with is that maybe she was a friend of a friend and hung out with us occasionally. Another weird thing about her, is she wasn't involved in any of the arts. Not choir or band. Which is primarily where my click came from.  she's a mystery. At least she's really nice. LOL

What you said about the first person, third person thing does make a lot of sense. A lot of books now tend to mash up the two. Depending on the character, they either were told first person or third, which is kind of confusing, until you get the hang of reading like that. I've read quite a handful of books that have done that. My eyes tend to gloss over all the descriptive text to find the dialogue as well, unless the writing is so fluid it doesn't bother me.

I just tend to stay silent when people are being cancelled because I very rarely will refuse to watch or read something by somebody who ends up being a terrible person. I'm watching them be someone else, not them. Or reading their characters not an autobiography. Especially when it comes to the sports people, who by all rights many of them are not great people. LOL

[mare]

Here is a nice medley of James Newton Howard's music from M. Night Shyamalan's movies: https://youtu.be/EO-q-24cXEY?si=1XpTAALCU-RnCw3G  The Village and Lady in the Water are two of my favorites of his scores.

It depends on the show, but there are some I never or rarely skip the intro for - Game of Thrones, Dexter, ER, and The Walking Dead, to name a few.  Streaming has been good for show intros because they're not limited on time like network shows, and they can give the option to skip intros for those who find them annoying when they're binging a show.

Thanks! I will listen to that when I do my legs later!