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wiseheartWorked a bit on the translation of the second installment of my Original Trek/Original Battlestar Galactica crossover series, "The Lost Years". The first chapter is already translated into English, but I can't post the thing before I finished translating the Prologue.
If only translating wasn't so hard and so boring. Translating German into English is easier, because the languages have a similar structure. But translating Hungarian into anything, that's really damn hard. I love my mother tongue, but as nobody but us speaks it, I must do this translating thing, and it kills me sometimes. No wonder "Crossroads" needed more than two years to be finished.
I don't really know why I bother at all. I very much doubt that it would find much echo, as we say it over here. When people who assumedly loved "Crossroads" (the pilot episode) couldn't be bothered to drop a line of feedback every time and again, I very much doubt that it would be any different with this part.
The problem is, I seem to lack the skill of establishing a busy little clique that would sing Hallelujah whenever I post a new chapter. Out of curiosity, I went to the TV crossovers section of FF.Net to take a look at some stories where the basic plotline seemed interesting. I won't discuss the quality of writing, because that would look too much like sour grapes, and I'm certainly not qualified to say anything about the grammar of native speakers... although when I can recognize mistakes, they must be blatant ones indeed.
But I've seen some fairly confusing plotlines, zero characterization, lots of quoted lines from actual episodes or series-related novels (without quoting the source and giving credit where credit is due, which I always do when I quote anything)- and hundreds of reviews. Nobody seemed to mind the line-quoting - the same thing for which I got chewed out repeatedly in reviews to a few of my sci-fi stories - and everyone seemed to be exalted about the technobabble.
So, apparently, you either need to write blatantly voyeuristic shipper fics (preferably high-rated ones) or space battles with lots of technobabble, to achieve a certain amount of success in the sci-fi genre. Regardless of the actual show. Of course, you need to write favourite pairings, or else you get just as ignored as before. Or else, you need to know incredible amounts of fictional science and all sorts of meaningless trivia about the effect of nonexistent futuristic weapons, to impress male readers.
Damn it, why can I never write things the masses really want to read? I know, I should go for serious readers who can value good writing, but let's face it, serious readers don't have the time to read in these days, and even when they do, they can rarely be convinced to toss a poor author a bone. I don't know why. Nobody expects a detailled analysis - well, at least I do not. I'd be perfectly happy if at least ten per cent of the people who read my stuff and liked it would tell me just as much. The self-proclaimed critics and nitpickers are a lot less shy, so they don't need encouraging. :/
Sometimes it really irks me when I visit the Spacebattles board and see all those guys discussing each other's writings in great lengths. It's not that they don't write decently - they do. I just wish I had such a circle where people are still so interested in their shared hobby and take the time to discuss it. I so hoped that Memory Alpha would serve as such a forum, but, well, we all know my luck with such things...
After finishing "The Last Yule in Halabor" I seem to have turned to my sci-fi stories for a while again. The Atlantis plotcritters were a surprise for me, but they are a result of the awesomeness that is Dr. Zelenka. *g* At least they are something written directly in English and don't need translating.
If only translating wasn't so hard and so boring. Translating German into English is easier, because the languages have a similar structure. But translating Hungarian into anything, that's really damn hard. I love my mother tongue, but as nobody but us speaks it, I must do this translating thing, and it kills me sometimes. No wonder "Crossroads" needed more than two years to be finished.
I don't really know why I bother at all. I very much doubt that it would find much echo, as we say it over here. When people who assumedly loved "Crossroads" (the pilot episode) couldn't be bothered to drop a line of feedback every time and again, I very much doubt that it would be any different with this part.
The problem is, I seem to lack the skill of establishing a busy little clique that would sing Hallelujah whenever I post a new chapter. Out of curiosity, I went to the TV crossovers section of FF.Net to take a look at some stories where the basic plotline seemed interesting. I won't discuss the quality of writing, because that would look too much like sour grapes, and I'm certainly not qualified to say anything about the grammar of native speakers... although when I can recognize mistakes, they must be blatant ones indeed.
But I've seen some fairly confusing plotlines, zero characterization, lots of quoted lines from actual episodes or series-related novels (without quoting the source and giving credit where credit is due, which I always do when I quote anything)- and hundreds of reviews. Nobody seemed to mind the line-quoting - the same thing for which I got chewed out repeatedly in reviews to a few of my sci-fi stories - and everyone seemed to be exalted about the technobabble.
So, apparently, you either need to write blatantly voyeuristic shipper fics (preferably high-rated ones) or space battles with lots of technobabble, to achieve a certain amount of success in the sci-fi genre. Regardless of the actual show. Of course, you need to write favourite pairings, or else you get just as ignored as before. Or else, you need to know incredible amounts of fictional science and all sorts of meaningless trivia about the effect of nonexistent futuristic weapons, to impress male readers.
Damn it, why can I never write things the masses really want to read? I know, I should go for serious readers who can value good writing, but let's face it, serious readers don't have the time to read in these days, and even when they do, they can rarely be convinced to toss a poor author a bone. I don't know why. Nobody expects a detailled analysis - well, at least I do not. I'd be perfectly happy if at least ten per cent of the people who read my stuff and liked it would tell me just as much. The self-proclaimed critics and nitpickers are a lot less shy, so they don't need encouraging. :/
Sometimes it really irks me when I visit the Spacebattles board and see all those guys discussing each other's writings in great lengths. It's not that they don't write decently - they do. I just wish I had such a circle where people are still so interested in their shared hobby and take the time to discuss it. I so hoped that Memory Alpha would serve as such a forum, but, well, we all know my luck with such things...
After finishing "The Last Yule in Halabor" I seem to have turned to my sci-fi stories for a while again. The Atlantis plotcritters were a surprise for me, but they are a result of the awesomeness that is Dr. Zelenka. *g* At least they are something written directly in English and don't need translating.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-16 07:06 pm (UTC)I have never been interested in much science fiction and the only show that vaguely interests me there is "Star Wars" and some episodes of "ST: The Next Generation" (because of Data and Q), so I wouldn't be of much use in commenting on that part of your fannish activities.
But please don't kill of your writer self in the interest of fannish marketing! What would I do without your wise and ancient Glorfindel, your complex and intriguing perspective of the ways of the Woodelves of Lasgalen, your non-whimsy Arwen and the person who single-handedly transformed "Gildor Inglorion" from a name in the background of Frodo's adventure into a pivotal character of Noldorin history? Where would I be without your image of Elrond (still trying to fight the battle with Hugo Weaving as default in my head, that's where!)?
And who would be there to challenge my favourite pairing every step of the way, poking me to make it more believable by simply being there when I read canon with an eye to writing fic again (which is what I am in fact doing again), who makes me think about the melting of the two canons, who makes me question Aragorn and even those scenes in the films I like or love?
Those are all the things you do which most writers in ff.net cannot and will never be able to! And that's something that makes you unique and one of my favourite authors in the fandom.
Please don't exchange challenging and exotic you for a more (falsely) popular you!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-16 07:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-17 05:11 am (UTC)As for translating, to quote a line I liked in the movie "Hunt for Red October" that just seems so fitting in a silly way: "You'll get the order of Lenin for this!"
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-17 07:04 pm (UTC)You forgot your VIP-card...