Fic Talk > General Discussion
Am I going crazy or is our thread gone?
nicksgal:
I used to have Trivia Crack on my phone too. I liked it a lot, but I stopped playing it for some reason. I can't remember why. Ads might have made it unplayable? I know so much useless stuff, I am fantastic at trivia. lmao I suppose if phone games count, I have a couple I play. Tetris, there's one like Connections, but it's gotten more ad-heavy. I have one where you have to match colored squares to the rows in numbers and columns to turn it into a picture and that's pretty enjoyable. I should get back into the NYT games, I enjoyed all of those and Sudoku. And I've got plenty of time these days.
I'm in pants and a sweatshirt because hubs keeps our house at like 66 degrees year round.
I would pay so much money to go see the Hollow 2. I don't care who else is in it. I need The Hollow 2: But Was It The Good Side of the Bridge? in my life as soon as possible. If Justin can be a troll, I don't see why Nick couldn't be a talking pig. Feels like he would fit in more in a Babe-type movie than Orwell, but... stranger things have happened.
Yes, found family is my absolutely favorite too. If a story has that, I am in! With Beetlejuice, I think it really depends on the hammyness of the actor playing Betelgeuse. That really makes it or breaks it since the musical leans into that. I wish there were more original ones too. The ones I liked best were all original things, so I'm sure someone is working on something new and interesting. But I'm also really hoping to see Death Becomes Her soon, lol. Although as I'm thinking about it, even ones we would consider classic and original are derivative works. See: Phantom, Les Mis, shoot even Miss Saigon is based on Madama Butterfly.
Jukebox musicals have been around forever -- at this point, I would call Rock Of Ages a classic. My BFF and I chatted about this since she's not a huge fan of them either. We saw Jagged Little Pill and she loved it, but hated Margaritaville . We settled on it probably depends on whether you like the original version of the jukebox setlist and how much the story they pick feels interesting to you rather than how well it fits the music. Because I pointed out that Margaritaville's story really fit the music, but she is the opposite of a Parrothead and thought it was really stupid. We did both agree that without the stage show included, it's not worth it to buy a cast recording of a jukebox musical, though.
I'm sure that would be so much pressure to top Hamilton. And it's not like his other stuff was not well-received. In The Heights was very popular as well. So going from a good musical to an international phenomenon and then whatever is next would be tough. But heck, even Andrew Lloyd Webber has a Starlight Express for every Phantom or Jesus Christ Superstar -- and I love Cats, but it is very divisive on whether it's actually good or not.
Hadestown is fantastic; I would see it again in a heartbeat! It's very visually stunning and the underworld as an unending factory is a fantastic metaphor/allegory. The update of the myth to an industrial revolution/depression-era setting makes it feel modern/updated, but true to the ancientness and timelessness of the myth. You would already know it from the Soundtrack, of course, but those Orpheus actors have chops! (As far as originality goes, still derivative though, lol.)
And this has been my diatribe on musicals. :shrug: Thanks for the recommendation on Next to Normal. It looks like our local company has it on the schedule this year. We recently saw them do Little Shop and it was fantastic, so I would go to a show put on by the theater company again as opposed to sticking with only the touring productions.
Three pages is great! I did a little over 1000 words yesterday too and finished up a chapter, so something is cooking. It feels nice to be writing again and doing research. Makes me want to go to the library and sift through reference books like ye olden times. There was a testbook-esque book called "The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt" that I used to check out from the library all the time and I ended up buying it a few years ago. Thank goodness for the internet though! Can you imagine buying every reference book you wanted for research?
That book does sound interesting! And clearly if you committed to it for two hours! My reading goal this summer is to finally finish American Gods. I've gotten into this bad habit of only reading on airplanes and it's hard to finish things that way.
I pay for Amazon Prime, so I get it. The lure of free shipping is too good.
RokofAges75:
Just finished three days of professional development, so trying to catch up on what I've missed here!
--- 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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I haven't used Libre Office. Is it all online or downloadable software? I do have Open Office, but I prefer Google Docs because it's cloud-based, so I can easily move between devices without having to use a flash drive or send myself documents the way I used to when I was using Word. But a similar free, cloud-based option that did not have a word limit would be worth looking into. I'd heard Google Docs' character limit was around 1.02 million characters, but I made it to 1,506,283 characters on my current story before it cut me off and literally wouldn't let me edit anymore. I knew there was some kind of limit because Drive wouldn't open the largest Word Docs I'd uploaded when I backed up all my fics there. I had to split my longest stories up into several different documents to be able to access them through Drive.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 16, 2025, 01:37:20 PM ---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.
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The longest story I've written all in one Google Doc is My Brother's Keeper, which was 50 chapters and over 218k words. It got very laggy toward the end. Curtain Call is the only story that's longer (about 250k words) that I've been able to keep all in one doc, but I wrote that one on Word. Once my current story, TWWBW, hit the character limit, I started breaking it up into separate documents by year so I could keep track of my annual word count more easily. I'm on my fourth one now. They're all of varying lengths, but none got long enough to be super slow to load.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 16, 2025, 01:37:20 PM ---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
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450 words is a good start! That's not a bad day of writing for me lately, depending on how long I stick with it. And finishing a chapter after four years is a major accomplishment! Yay for you!
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 16, 2025, 01:37:20 PM ---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?
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We really haven't discussed Love Life Tragedy too much here because not everyone has heard it. I agree with you about the rawness of the album. It has a completely different feel from All American, which makes sense, considering it's ten years later, and a lot has happened in Nick's life since then (mainly having kids, but also losing more of his siblings and all the legal drama he's had to deal with). It's a lot deeper, more serious, and very personal. Don't Let Me Go is another one of my favorites; it makes me cry! I'm obviously not a parent, but looking at it from his perspective, or even just from my own as an aunt, I can empathize and relate to how fast kids grow up. I also can see it from the kid's point of view, watching my own parents age and knowing they won't be around forever. It's a tearjerker for sure. Hey Kid is also great! I still really love Superman too, and Made for Us and Nothing Without Your Love are bops. I wasn't crazy about Dirty Laundry at first because it felt almost too simple compared to the 80s catchiness of the original. But it has grown on me, and I've come to appreciate that it's just Nick's vocals and the guitar. I don't like it better than the original, but I do like it as a cover. I also enjoy the 80s rendition of Help Me - again, not better than the original, but it's fun as a fresh take on the original. The only tracks I'm still not big on are Wild Heart and the two Cold Nights. I tend to skip them so I can listen to Storms again LOL. I'm kinda "eh" on Easy too, but I do like this solo version better than the original collab version.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on June 16, 2025, 01:37:20 PM ---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
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No judgment! I would have a hard time not mouthing the words to the BSB songs in & Julie too! As long as you're just mouthing and not singing loud enough to be heard by others are a Broadway show, I think that's fine.
backstreetsbabyg:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on June 18, 2025, 03:48:47 PM ---Just finished three days of professional development, so trying to catch up on what I've missed here!
I haven't used Libre Office. Is it all online or downloadable software? I do have Open Office, but I prefer Google Docs because it's cloud-based, so I can easily move between devices without having to use a flash drive or send myself documents the way I used to when I was using Word. But a similar free, cloud-based option that did not have a word limit would be worth looking into. I'd heard Google Docs' character limit was around 1.02 million characters, but I made it to 1,506,283 characters on my current story before it cut me off and literally wouldn't let me edit anymore. I knew there was some kind of limit because Drive wouldn't open the largest Word Docs I'd uploaded when I backed up all my fics there. I had to split my longest stories up into several different documents to be able to access them through Drive.
The longest story I've written all in one Google Doc is My Brother's Keeper, which was 50 chapters and over 218k words. It got very laggy toward the end. Curtain Call is the only story that's longer (about 250k words) that I've been able to keep all in one doc, but I wrote that one on Word. Once my current story, TWWBW, hit the character limit, I started breaking it up into separate documents by year so I could keep track of my annual word count more easily. I'm on my fourth one now. They're all of varying lengths, but none got long enough to be super slow to load.
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Libre Office is a downloadable program/application suite it is the successor to OpenOffice and it’s made by the same team. They were working on a cloud version and an android app but, they had to stop and focus on the main office suite instead.
mare:
Look, I'm far too lazy to go and quote things so just know I'm talking Broadway now. lol
Obviously, almost every Broadway show comes from some other form. Mostly books - like Les Miz, Phantom of the Opera, My Fair Lady, Cats, even Hamilton to a point. In that case, to me it's still original because they added brand new music which brings the plot together and enhances it. Unlike shows that come directly from Disney movies that already contain the music and all they are doing is bringing it to the stage, maybe only adding one new song just so they can be considered a new musical when it comes to Tony considerations . Or the Juke Box musicals where they take a catalogue of work by one person or genre and from that try to stretch it into some kind of believable plot. I would imagine if you're a big enough fan of the artist, you'll love the musical but otherwise my guess is no. I love Alicia Keys so Hell's Kitchen might be fine for me, but no thanks to almost every other one.
I don't think I've ever shared this story before, but when I was in high school, for an end of year class trip for our music department, we went to go see Cats on Broadway. We had mezzanine dirt cheap tickets. What I did not know about this musical is that during the Overture, all the cats sneak out into the audience and sit in the aisles. I had an aisle seat. I was so engrossed in watching the orchestra, or trying to anyway, that I didn't notice the cat sitting right next to me. Towards the end of the Overture when it starts playing memory all of these cat's eyes start glowing. Anyway, I heard my friend gasp next to me and when I looked up, she was staring past me so when I turned, all I saw was this furry person with glowing red eyes and I screamed! And because I screamed and startled her, the poor cat screamed lmao EVERYONE looked at us at that point. I'm just glad the orchestra didn't stop. I was so embarrassed. She patted my shoulder and said sorry about that before she ran out the door to get to the stage. :patpat:
I also have to admit that I actually really enjoyed Starlight Express. I saw it twice. Once in London before it came to Broadway and then once on Broadway. I think it was the roller skating I enjoyed watching and I did like the songs as well. I have to say for the most part, Cats was the only show I've seen that I didn't really like all that much. South Pacific was another one I could have done without. I haven't actually heard the entire soundtrack of Hadestown, but from what I've seen (mostly on TikTok videos of it being illegally recorded) I have really enjoyed it and the whole concept. The revised Sunset Blvd looks pretty good too, but I doubt they would be able to recreate the outdoor walk at the beginning for a touring company. There's still a lot of popular musicals I have never actually seen live like Hamilton or Book of Mormon or Wicked. (I saw an entire illegally tapes version though lol) I kind of wish I had gotten a chance to see The Picture of Dorian Gray, although I hated the book. I heard from everyone it was amazing.
My theater bug has returned because of me fully emerging myself into Broadway again. I have been in a lot of plays and musicals. I would never be able to do it now, but perhaps I'll try to catch a show or two if they come touring up this way. Who knows, maybe The Hollow - the musical starring Nick and Kieran will make its way up here someday. Then you guys can all road trip up here to see it with me! :D
12 more shows until Kieran goes back into his hidey hole. :'(
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on June 17, 2025, 09:41:24 AM ---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.
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That sounds like a good plan! I also like to get a good start on a story and make sure it's going well before I post anything. Better odds of seeing it through to completion that way. I can understand your fear about interest dwindling the longer the show is off the air, but I think the die-hards will stick around. I discovered when I posted my ER crossover that the ER fandom on AO3 is similar to the BSB fandom in terms of size and activity - 1700-some stories with new chapters still being posted daily. Not bad for a 30-year-old show that ended in 2009. I frequent the ER subreddit, and that show has seen a resurgence lately because of The Pitt - a lot of younger people who watched The Pitt are now watching ER for the first time and loving it - so I could actually see that fandom growing exponentially if these younger first-time viewers get into writing fic for it. Similarly, it seems that the Millennium nostalgia has brought some old-school BSB fanfic writers - and probably also readers - out of retirement. My point is that you never know what might happen that would spark new interest and bring new readers to an "old" fandom.
--- Quote from: mare on June 17, 2025, 09:41:24 AM ---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.
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I go through phases with The Sims. I will play it obsessively for days, sometimes even weeks, spending 8+ hours a day glued to my computer without even realizing it, and then I'll abruptly stop and go months without even opening it. I was the same way with the original Sims back in the early 2000s. I stopped playing it for probably about 15 years because I knew what a time suck it can be, but I downloaded The Sims 4 three years ago to pass the time while I had Covid and discovered that it was just as addicting as the original game was when I was a teenager. I enjoy building and decorating homes and other buildings the best; that's usually what I'm doing when I get super addicted to it. I've built or redesigned multiple houses, an apartment building, a hospital, a funeral home, a movie theater, a couple of restaurants, a bakery, and a record shop in my current game. I enjoy playing with my Sim characters, too, but that is usually not as addicting for me. You can download the base game for free, so it might be worth trying when you get a new computer. It does take up a lot of space, especially if you start buying the expansion packs and other add-ons. You can play it on consoles, too, but I think it's better on a computer because you can download free custom content and mods from the internet that won't work on the consoles. I don't really play any other video games. I still have a Wii and my old Nintendo 64 and will get on those once in a blue moon, but otherwise, it's pretty much just The Sims. I don't even play games on my phone very much anymore.
--- Quote from: mare on June 17, 2025, 09:41:24 AM ---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
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Maybe someday! Next time they play Buffalo on a summer tour, we could come to you.
I've gotta run, but I'll be back to reply to more posts at some point soon. It's been a busy week for me!
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