Fic Talk > General Discussion
Am I going crazy or is our thread gone?
backstreetsbabyg:
Thank you so much for the birthday wishes :) (I noticed that the main page said the most online the other day was like 900 something… have bots finally discovered the forums?)
Mare, I watched through your vids so cool!
And Julie, if you need a more powerful word replacement libre office is a free open source word clone. I personally use scrivener on both my iPad and my Mac. But my brother uses the google suite stuff a lot. I had no clue about the word cap.
nicksgal:
A'ight, I tried to catch up in one post. :D
Happy (belated) birthday! Hope it was a great one!
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 13, 2025, 02:29:36 PM ---All this makes me happy to hear!
What are your favorite tracks from Nick's album? My favorite of the new ones is Storms. I could definitely see that one inspiring a story someday.
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I actually wrote about 450 words on Friday, so I'm calling it a good start. I was at least able to finish off a chapter I've been working on on-and-off for... oof, looks like four years. :D Well, little celebrations. lol
I also really enjoy Storms from the newer ones! I'm sure y'all have chatted ad nauseam already, but I overall enjoy the rawness of the album. It feels like a journey through trauma responses, but with a hope spot and some catharsis mixed in. I think that's what I enjoy in Storms is the narrative that you've got your guard up, but you're trying to take action, and also still believing there's some peace in the end. Very beautiful stuff.
Don't Let Go gets me, because I always feel myself saying, "You're so right, Nick. If you do your job correctly, you're raising a person who'd got their own stuff to do besides being your baby." I don't think it was intended, but it also makes me think of the opposite, being the child who's, in some ways, also not wanting their parent(s) to let go.
I still love Hey Kid, even though it wasn't "new" when the album dropped. Right before the song came out, I got asked what I'd go back and tell myself in high school or what I'd try to change for myself. And you know I love a good joke, so I said "Don't worry, you still get to go to Backstreet Boys concerts, but you didn't get to marry Nick Carter." But my actual more serious answer was that we're who we are because of our journey and the people who help us through. And it's not so much that life only gives us things we can handle, it's that we're able to handle things and get stronger because of our journey. I did say I would tell myself to be less hard on my mom though.
And you know I love a good bop, so Made For Us is my jam. I think the only songs I'm lukewarm about are Easy and Dirty Laundry. And it's not that they're bad, they just feel kind of "eh" compared to everything else. :shrug: Could be chord progression maybe?
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 13, 2025, 02:29:36 PM ---According to comments I've seen on Reddit, there are definitely teenagers who type all their fanfics on their phones.
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I hate the typos too! Those kids are brave. Especially the ones that use their phones to write on AO3 like you said. The rookiest rookie mistake. You forget to save one draft and poof! Good on you making your kids practice typing. I have the opposite problem where families will ask me for tech options for helping fine-motor skills and I'm like, uh, no... An app won't help with that. Go play with play dough or climb the monkey bars. :D
--- Quote from: mare on June 14, 2025, 09:41:16 AM ---There was an elevator and a ramp leading into the gym, but there was no way for someone in a wheelchair to get to the main school from the gym without having to climb steps. :shrug:
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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 14, 2025, 11:05:52 PM ---"Have the art teacher carry her" was the answer I got the last time I had a student who used a wheelchair and couldn't walk at all.
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These sound like nightmares! Schools that are multi-level make me so nervous for ADA stuff. I'm so blessed that my kids are small, so our bathroom is in our classroom. Add to that that our school is only one level, except the gym/auditorium is a bit sunken, but has a ramp no issue.
"Just carry the kid" makes me so angry on multiple levels. That's not a feasible emergency solution and probably a clear violation of many ADA or OSHA policies. When I had a classroom on the garden level (see: basement), I had a student that was very concerned about what would happen if a fire was in our hallway and we couldn't get out our door. They were adamant about getting an answer, so I ended up saying that I would probably throw a chair at the window and we'd all climb out that way. I was never positive that the chair would break the window, but a couple years later, a car did crash into that window and break it (luckily, no one was in the room at the time, so there were not injuries), so my solution may have been feasible.
--- Quote from: mare on June 14, 2025, 09:41:16 AM ---Stage Door has become a whole culture now. I know the Outsiders, even though there's no one famous in that show, they have a bunch of groupies that go to the plays all the time and religiously wait for them afterwards. Apparently, they are rude as well. They treat the play like a rock concert and yell out the actors' names. Since Broadway is right now comprised of a lot of A list celebrities it's been kind of crazy, although not many do stage door regularly. I think George Clooney comes out once in a while. No offense to Joey Fatone, but nobody seems to care about him. I don't even think they have a barricade for & Juliet. I might be wrong, but who knows? lol
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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 14, 2025, 11:05:52 PM ---I've only been to two Broadway shows (on actual Broadway), and both times, I was on a bus trip with a big group of people, so I don't think waiting at the stage door was an option, if that was even a thing back then. I haven't been to NYC since 2009, so I'm sure the culture has grown since then. That's crazy that people are yelling out the actors' names during the show. No matter what kind of music it is, a musical is not the same as a concert. I've been to musicals where I know every lyric and would love to sing along, but I don't because we paid to hear the actors sing, not random people in the audience LOL. I do sing along at concerts, but quietly - and not when someone is recording next to me.
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The Outsiders is part of our touring ticket package this year. I'm pretty excited for that one. For better or for worse, as far as I know, stage doors aren't a thing locally, so it's not really an issue. I've only been to one show on actual Broadway and I probably couldn't have convinced hubs to go to a stage door if I tried.
I was this person. :( I'm normally very good for all musicals I love. Like I've seen Les Mis several times and have never sung. But my Backstreet-loving heart could not help mouthing the words to the Backstreet Boys songs during & Juliet. I didn't actually say a word, so hopefully I did not bother the people next to us, but my BFF about died trying to hold in her laughter. There was a woman that sat in front of us when we saw The Wiz and she was dancing and having a great time; we joked about how many times she must have seen it or whether she was a huge MJ or Diana Ross fan. And my BFF was definitely like "You're The Wiz lady" after the show. :blushes: Don't judge me too much. :D
--- Quote from: mare on June 15, 2025, 10:15:05 AM ---The last time I went to Broadway before seeing this one was when I went to see Kevin in Chicago. There were only a small handful of people waiting at the backstage door and no barricades at all. When I was very young and living in the Bronx, we used to go very often to see a lot of shows and we almost always waited backstage afterwards. I was so young though, I don't really remember caring about anything except getting a NYC pretzel afterwards. lol
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Snacks afterward are the best part. 100%.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 14, 2025, 11:05:52 PM ---YouTube is a great starting point! I learn so much from YouTube LOL.
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I have learned so much useless junk from YouTube and it has been wonderful. How much it helps my normal life is iffy. In theory, I could mount a horse without a saddle. But, I have also gotten some great cleaning and simple repair tips. lol
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 14, 2025, 11:05:52 PM ---The only thing I miss about Word is that there's no limit to how long documents can be. Google Docs can't handle some of my docs. 🙃
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--- Quote from: backstreetsbabyg on June 15, 2025, 06:56:06 PM ---And Julie, if you need a more powerful word replacement libre office is a free open source word clone. I personally use scrivener on both my iPad and my Mac. But my brother uses the google suite stuff a lot. I had no clue about the word cap.
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Yeah, phone is definitely short and sweet. If I could text it, I can use my phone. If it's serious, even emails, it's a computer thing.
I used Scrivner once upon a time when it used to be free. Oh the good old days. I think the limit on Google Docs is less about how many words you've written and how much data you're storing. So if you get into the habit of "suggesting" changes to your work, so you can see your original thoughts and also your edited thoughts, it takes more data storage than just deleting and starting over. If you're also making several changes over several days, it will store a new version each time, making more data storage. So if you write it all in one go and edit it all in one go (or don't edit thirteen-year-old style), then you can probably fit more words into one document without it lagging. If you're writing and doing anything else that would hold extra data, you can fit less words.
It's not an exact science, but I've gotten about 15-20 chapters into one document before it lags, but then it may or may not open. The longer the word count of each chapter plus the amount of edits could make it less. I find ten chapters per document is usually a good chunk when I've mostly finalized things -- feels like an even amount of work and the document still works the way I want it to.
--- Quote from: mare on June 14, 2025, 09:41:16 AM ---I'm glad you're both writing. I have about two more chapters to write on this one and then I think I'm taking a break. I've been wanting to paint again, and I can't do both.
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You've got this Mare! May inspiration strike you! Painting would be fun too. Sounds relaxing.
--- Quote from: mare on June 15, 2025, 10:15:05 AM ---I wish I was talented enough to paint freestyle. When I say painting, I mean those elaborate paint by number ones I make. They are hard and look really good when I'm done but I could never do it freeform. I would love to do that. I have so many visual images in my mind of certain scenes in my stories that I'd love to see come alive.
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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 15, 2025, 02:19:54 PM ---Ah, paint by number sounds fun! I'm not a good freestyle painter or drawer either. It is fun to bring your stories to life in a visual way. That's what I do with The Sims. My characters and settings never look quite the same as they do in my head, but I still have fun creating them and playing with them in my game.
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I think painting by numbers are great! You get the relaxing bit of painting and end up with something cool. Freestyle painting feels more difficult than all other 2-D art forms and I have no idea why that is. I've drawn a few things for stories to work things out, but they are never immaculately beautiful, they're just sketchy. Julie can vouch for this. lol
I know there's people who are really dedicated to seeing their stories visually and commission people to help them out. I think there's many of us who think of our stories in a visual medium when conceiving them and not just as words on a page, so I think it makes sense that we'd want to see certain things visually.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 15, 2025, 02:19:54 PM ---Yes, the Vegas trip will be a nice way to sort of close out my summer before August hits and I have to get into back to school mode. We are not doing a meet and greet because of how expensive it is. The last time I went to Vegas in July, it was 120 degrees, so that's what I'm preparing myself for. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be because of the lack of humidity. I never felt sweaty because it was so dry that the sweat evaporated instantly, and we were only outside for a few minutes at a time while walking between casinos. The only thing we're hoping to do that's outside is the Neon Museum, which we'll do at night if it's not too hot.
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It's going to be hot as hell, but the lack of humidity out west 100% helps! It's supposed to be 105 here by the weekend and I just want to hide in my house. Luckily, Vegas makes it really easy to avoid the outdoors whenever possible.
mare:
When I went to go check in here yesterday the site was down again! Luckily it wasn't for too long this time.
I hate when we turn to another page on here before I respond because at least when everything is on one page I can constantly go back and read what people said, now I have to depend on my memory, and we all know how that goes. lol
I only have one and a half more chapters to go for this story and yes, even though I am taking a break, I do have another story all plotted out. I am going to work on it from time to time over the summer and hope to start posting it either in August or September. I want to make sure, I have enough of an idea for an entire story. There's also this little fear in me, that the farther we get away from the actual show the less people will want to read, but every fandom still seems to have a good amount of readers even long after the show fades away. We shall see.
The Sims does sound like a fun way to bring your characters to life. I have thought about getting into video games a bunch of times, but I remember even with the Sims when I did have it set up on my desktop forever ago, I lost interest pretty quickly. We shall see. Getting a game console might be worth it. Maybe when it's time to get a new laptop I'd just download some games, but this one is getting up there.
At least the Vegas heat is dry. It's the humidity that tends to kill me. And like you guys said, pretty much everything is indoors. I can understand why you'd skip the VIP. I was pretty sure it would be outrageously expensive, especially because of the nostalgia of it all. The show is probably going to be spectacular in that place. I hope you guys have the best time. I'm sad I never got the chance to do anything like that with you guys. I even have the panda skunk tee-shirt and everything. lol
I hope you had a great birthday, Lindsey. I'm glad you got a chance to see my videos. For some reason the Kieran one was fuzzy on the You Tube one. It's clear everywhere else. I've always had a love hate relationship with You Tube.
I haven't heard Nick's album, but I know he's released cartoons to go along with it. I thought I'd be inclined to want to listen to it on the train ride there or back, but nope. Didn't happen. I still haven't watched part two of that documentary yet. I keep forgetting about it. I really do keep waiting for my BSB spark to light up again. I thought maybe with everyone talking about the new album and them showing back up in the spotlight it might have happened, but not a thing. Maybe I need them to intertwine with Kieran. Maybe if they work on the Hungar Games soundtrack? I have no idea how my brain works. I am happy for their success though.
Dee, I've heard The Outsiders is a great play. I think the younger girls are attracted to the cast because they are all pretty young and cute. I loved that book. It would be one of the musicals I'd be interested in seeing. It's hard for me to picture it as a musical though.
Okay, I need to get a little writing done and then catch up on my book.
nicksgal:
Oh man, I scroll down and intermittently quote like it's my job to try and help us all remember the conversation thread. lol!
I think all fandoms sort of wane over time in the writing world, but I think the ones based on media like books/television/movies tend to last a bit longer past the source material ending. I haven't deeply looked into this, so cannot confirm, but I think some older fandoms are still the most popular for works -- even new works. I think it depends on how much it all resonated with people. And on our end where it's quiet at times, I think it's good to write what brings you joy. You're the story's first reader, after all.
I have never been able to get into video games either! Even something like The Sims, which in theory feels enjoyable. Mario Kart is about where my interest ends. I think there's a lot of platforms these days for all that. I know during 2020, I was really into Jackbox Games -- which made social party games that you could connect to with your phone, so it was a great thing to do virtually with several people. And you could buy them on an online gaming platform (can't remember the name) or a console, like a Playstation. The ones I enjoyed were more things like trivia or superlative type games. In one round of the superlative game, you had to sort your friends into boy band roles -- I was dubbed "the cute one" -- and we all changed our names on Zoom to our boy band roles because of it, lol. At the end, you could feed your winnings to the mascot and it was so delightfully stupid to hear a bunch of 30-somethings chanting "feed the mouth" on a Zoom call. I'm sure they still make games, but it's obviously less of a thing in our lives these days, or at least mine personally.
Yo, I will take 100 in dry heat over 80 and humid any day of the week. You shouldn't feel like you have to take a shower just from stepping outside. We were on a trip last week in the South and you could just tell it needed to rain, it was like being in a greenhouse.
Overall they're good videos, but the story beats are a bit off because they're trying to match up with the songs versus what's coded in the visuals. Also there's a really stupid cat. Maybe once 2.0 is out, it'll spark again -- IWITW is what got you originally, yes? But just keep manifesting them crossing paths with Kieran! That would be cool. Although, I think he and Nick are worlds apart in the acting department. lol!
I haven't read the book, but the movie is great! I have yet to be disappointed by a musical based on a movie (or based on a movie based on a book) yet, which seems to be most of them these days. Mean Girls was amazing -- helps when the original script writer is writing the musical script. Back to the Future was great from a tech standpoint, but probably would have been less enjoyable if I didn't already like Back to the Future; the songs were only okay, but it was still a fun nostalgia romp. Beetlejuice was also fantastic. For all three of those, just enough changed that they still felt fresh even though the basic plot and ending were foregone conclusions. I think my favorite musicals that I've seen in the past year or so have been Gutenberg! The Musical and SIX. As a Shakespeare nerd and pop aficionado, I really enjoyed & Juliet too. I did also see a really great revival of 1776 where the cast was all women, trans, or non-binary actors. It's been nice to see so many revivals getting cast updates -- I like to think Hamilton had hand in all that.
Good luck with your writing today! May the words flow on the page like a river meeting the seas. ;D I wrote 1000 more words yesterday, so things are brewing.
mare:
And I thank you for your scrolling and quoting.
I do enjoy trivia games. I had one on my phone for quite a long time. I think it was called Trivia crack. I played it all the time, and it was one of those where you could challenge other people, but unfortunately, I don't like people, so I always just played by myself. lol I do the whole Wordle, Connections and Phrazle thing every day. I used to love Zelda. I played it a lot in college, but it's been a while. If I start feeling like I need some kind of change, I might try video games. I also have all these damn bracelet making accessories too now.
It's so humid here today, that my bedroom window is a tiny bit open, it's right by my desk, which is where I am sitting now, and I keep having to stop typing because my glasses keep fogging over!
Good lord, I do not want Kieran and Nick EVER in the same movie acting wise. Lord only knows that would mean that Kieran's acting career has met a huge downward spiral. Can you imagine, The Hollow 2 starring Nick Carter and Kieran Culkin? lmao yikes! A soundtrack would work. Since the Hunger Games is all I got at the moment, that's what I'll hope for. Animal Farm is coming out soon. (He plays one of the pigs) so no chance for a collab for that one.
I loved The Outsiders movie as well. A story about brothers and found family? That's my thing. I'm there for it. Tracy loved Beetlejuice too. That's another one that I can't seem to picture as a musical. I wish they would come up with some more original ones. Noone seems to have any creative ideas anymore. It's all just Disney remakes or old Movie remakes or Jukebox musicals. I hate the idea of a show with no original music.
We need Lin Manuel to stop with the Disney soundtracks and get his butt back to writing musicals. I bet that's a whole other kind of stress. Can you imagine trying to top Hamilton? Nonbinary 1776 sounds interesting. Seeing GGR has made me want to see more shows now. I really want to see Hadestown, it's one I would have seen if we could have stayed in the city for a few days. I love the music in that one. I also just watched Next to Normal on PBS Great Performances. I highly recommend that one. It was fantastic!
Good for you writing 1,000 words! I find when I'm nearing the end of a story I start slowing down. Reading has been distracting me from my writing, but I did write about 3 pages yesterday.
I am currently reading "The Reformatory" and it's SO good, I just read from 7 to 9:30.
Speaking of reading, I just spent way too much on books. It's Amazon's fault. I needed a playbill picture frame for my signed copy and of course, if you spend so and so dollars, delivery is free, so with my one little frame I bought 11 books. lmao that's a lot but all my favorite authors have new books out. I had to. :shrug:
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