InsaneJournal

A beginning post
SO.  I figured I would post whatever blurbs of writing bizarrity I could come up with here.  I personally think I'm not so great, but I'd like to get feedback from others - either my initial expectation is correct and I'm really not that great at writing, or I just like putting myself down.  Or perhaps it's somewhere in the middle.

But anyway...

On the subject of fandoms I write for, I currently only write for Invader Zim - it's been a favorite of mine for...gee, I dunno...nearly three years now?  Most of what I write never gets finished, as I often find myself more interested in other things, but there is ONE that I've dedicated myself to finishing.  I mean, it's only been in my head for about a year now.  It's driving me nuts, and I gotta get it down on paper.  ...Or...er...computer.

While the overall plot of the story may not be entirely original (in fact, I mostly got the inspiration to write it because of a 1000-word short done for a contest in the ZADR club on deviantART), I'll be doing my best to keep it as interesting as possible, and not filled with a ton of lamity like a lot of fanfics nowadays.  Meanwhile, speaking of the short I was inspired by... I simply loved the way it was written; it was short, to the point, and just had a lot of raw emotion.  Despite the reason it was written, it wasn't even so much as ZADR as it was the simple dependence the two clearly have (the unmade episode of Mopiness of Doom even proved that), and I really just wanted to expand on that, without making it too angsty or out-of-character.

Another thing that prompted this was the fact that the story inspiring me seemed to have mysteriously vanished.  It made me kinda sad, because I wanted to read it again.  But, what can I do?  (Aside from write an expanded and detailed version with more dark humor than angst, nothing really.)

Meanwhile, the only really finished writing I've ever done for Invader Zim can be found here - looking back, there's a lot I could've done better, and I missed a bit of a plot-hole or two.  Though, it was written over a year ago.  I would hope I've improved since then.

A few things I'd like to point out before I start posting, however, is the fact that I'm well aware of how sketchy my grammar can be at times - while sometimes it's done purposefully, often to enunciate something or dramatize it a bit more, it is (more often than not) purely accidental, and I'd love for it to be pointed out so I can correct it.  Spelling, on the other hand, generally isn't an issue for me; I'm pretty anal about the correctness of the written word in that respect.  But of course, if you notice something off, go ahead and notify me.  I won't bite, or nibble, or anything of the sort.  :]

On another note, I also occasionally write drabbles based around the roleplay board I take part in, which goes by the name of Cosmic Castaways.  Generally it'll be about my own characters, as I'm not well-versed enough to write for those belonging to other players.  My personal favorite would have to be the 256th Krylochan Election drabble - though I'm sure I missed a couple of grammatical bloopers and worded some stuff oddly in a few points, I'm quite proud of the end result.  (The only thing I find bizarre about it is the fact that my friends pointed out how the style I used for it was vaguely similar to that of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - in all honesty, it wasn't meant to be like that.  But, it's all good - I like the way Douglas Adams writes.)

Another writing blurb for Cosmic Castaways can be found here - just me tormenting one of my characters for no good reason.  I tend to do that a lot with her...  (And here's another bit of retardation, in which the universe of Cosmic Castaways is ignored in favor of that of Harry Potter, because I thought it would be funny to write.  Aside from the spot-on interaction between the characters, though, I don't really like it.)

And then, from past fandoms (that is, Tokyo Mew Mew), I have two little drabbles - Life Clock and Dreamweaving Carnival (otherwise entitled 'I'VE LOST MY MIND').  They were written ages ago, and I honestly don't really like them anymore.  :[  Ah well...

Anyhoo, I also draw a lot, so I might post up a couple of sketches now and then.  They'll mostly revolve around Invader Zim (ZADR specifically) and Cosmic Castaways, of course, as the only other thing I draw is for a comic of my own creation, which I only post on my old LiveJournal.  Yes, I'm aware LJ is going downhill, but I don't care to read into the reasons why.  I like to avoid drama when I can.

And for the rest of my drawing crap, you can visit my deviantART page.

Moving back to the subject of that Invader Zim fiction, however...

It's entitled 'Fall to Ruin', taking place a few years (let's say six) ahead of canon - Dib is probably about 17, as I imagine him to be about 11 in canon.  After all, he was in fifth grade in canon, and 11 seems to be the general age of fifth graders (unless they started school early, like myself, or skipped ahead a grade).  Meanwhile, Zim would be 162, as Jhonen stated at one point that Zim was 156 in the show.

Despite the fact that I AM a huge fan of the pairing, it won't be ZADR - it'll be more of amity than anything else, and very shaky amity at that.  I more of wanted to show just how much the two seem to depend on each other, as I've mentioned before.

Unlike many many IZ fans today, I do NOT change their personalities or clothing preferences in the least - no emo/punk/prep/whatever crap.  Dib is still fully set on keeping the Earth safe, he still wears his trenchcoat and the wonderfully indifferent-faced blue shirt, he still has glasses, and his hair is still in that hilariously goofy scythe style (though in reference to 'Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom' and because Professor Membrane has it, the 'scythe lock' - as some people have dubbed it - has developed a bit of a zigzag shape). 

Zim, on the other hand, remains mostly the same as well, crazy and set on the destruction of the human race and all.  However, as the idea entertained me, he has gained a decent amount of height due to a device of his own creation.  A most certainly illegal device, but honestly, can you imagine Zim really caring?  I mean...he blew up a large portion of his home planet, and then basically declared it to be an amazing success ("Am I the only one who was impressed by that?").  HOWEVER.  Despite the fact that, yes, he increased his height, I didn't make it to where he would surpass the Tallests.  Much the opposite, in fact, as he's still relatively average in height.  In my opinion, Zim holds the Tallests in much too high a regard to attempt to surpass them, especially in an illegal manner.

So how tall did I make him, and how does it compare to others?  Well...let's see...  Not taking the style the show uses into account (as elementary students clearly do not barely go up to the knees of full-grown adults in real life), let's say he's about...oh...a little under four feet in canon.  Maybe three and...eight to ten inches?  Now, Dib's probably a good couple of inches taller than him at this point, but considering the height of his father, there's no doubt he'll shoot up to a rather impressive height in his teen years.  Let's say...a little over six feet.  Six and a half, perhaps?  (A friend of mine is about this height, so I know I'm not being too out there - sounds abnormally tall, but it's honestly not.)  Taking into account that Zim described full-grown humans - or at least the taller ones - as being about the same height as the Tallests, let's assume that Red and Purple are about this height.  Or, add on a couple of inches.  Make them seven feet or something.  (They'd probably be good at basketball.)  Now, if a little under four feet makes for a tiny Irken, I'd assume that perhaps a foot or so more would make for a relatively average Irken height.  How about a solid five feet?  Of course, considering who we're talking about, Zim would probably want just a tiny bit more of an advantage - thus landing him at...let's say...about five foot three.  Still more than a foot shorter than Dib (which will probably be grounds for an amusing argument of some kind), and a little less than two feet shorter than the Tallests, but with just enough height gain to where he might be able to get a grudging amount of respect from other average-sized Irkens, which is probably exactly what he wants.  (Wow, this was a long-ass explanation...)

Moving on to bits and pieces of plot, however.  No, it's not the general 'Zim finds out his mission is a lie and goes to Dib for comfort' or 'Dib gives up on Earth to join Zim for revenge' crap.  Absolutely not - their missions are key parts of who they are.  But when both of their missions are in jeopardy (most clearly in 'Tak, the Hideous New Girl', IMHO), they can't help but rely on one another.  This is basically what I'm going for, only on a much more extreme scale - another invading race succeeding in wiping out most of humanity, resulting in Zim and Dib being forced to rely on each other just to survive, while the fact that both of their missions have been completely ruined becomes a sort of conflict between them; that'll be explored more in the actual fiction, of course.

Now, the fic itself mainly only revolves around the two struggling to survive, though if the feedback is good as I go along with posting it, I might continue on with what happens afterwards.  (I'm tempted to develop their relationship further into the ZADR side of the spectrum if I continue and as the story unfolds, but it all depends on how it works out, I suppose.)

Well, I'll be posting up the first chapter later, but for now, I must be off to slave away work.  See ya!  :]