With me it's not real life - I've often written during my busiest times and it's not done much harm (I take a firm CS line in playing hard as well as working hard and it's done me well so far). I wouldn't even say it's lack of inspiration either. Laziness and forgetfulness accounts for the majority of my unfinished drabbles. As for the current Scar, I've got loads of chapters just waiting to be published, and a good idea of where to go next, but applies...

As for SDL/LGM, these days I find myself putting prewritten stuff on SDL and more improvised drabbles on LGM...

And you can adjust the text size on LGM - there's a button above Logout[Username] that looks a bit like ˯A^˄ and it alters the text size.

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Rockin'.

Indeed you can but sadly it's still not big enough, especially on that grey background. And on the tablet it's even worse.

(I have come to the conclusion that I don't much like tablet reading anyway and the way some websites appear and behave is just plain infuriating.)

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Cestina's dolls houses - The Last Rose of Summer

Zooming in might help? There's a zoom option on the three-bar menu in chrome (or Ctrl-+ on any browser on a computer or moving your fingers apart on any touchscreen).

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Rockin'.

I do mean to get back to it but much of my year is spent plotting/writing a pantomime and attending rehearsals etc. And spendng five days a week at work in front of a computer means that by the time I get home, I'm reluctant to spend any further time on the computer! Having said that, I seem to be landed with a day off sick so will see if inspiration strikes!

I'm also suffering from real life, but I have been the whole time I've been drabbling. I switched to LGM for T&M because I was concerned about character theft - there's a lot of original stuff in those drabbles which I want to use in other writing, and I felt marginally safer on a password protected site - but I do tend to post the others in both places.

I think I've been struggling to get up the enthusiasm for drabbling since they moved off the CBB. When I first started drabbling I had a thoroughly lovely following, who were all totally engaged and often enjoyed a debate below each update. I really, really enjoyed that and it encouraged me hugely - and I know it was the same for other drabblers - there was a They'll Turn Me gang, and a School Of Adventure gang, and Eilidh's drabbles about the Maynard boys had a really enthusiastic following, and all the rest of them did too (sorry not to name everyone ), and everyone was, to re-use the word in strict defiance of CS rules on composition, engaged with the story. It really felt like each drabble was something we all shared, and I often found that people would comment with some remark that made me see the story in a new light. Out of interest, did any other drabble writers/readers feel like that?

The SDL just doesn't have that gossipy feel to it, and that's what I liked most about drabbling. I'm not writing Great Literature, I'm writing a story about people we all know in the hope of entertaining my fellow CS fans. All in all, I prefer LGM, because the forum style of writing has helped to recover some of that discursive and entertaining response.

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Someone cooking meat at the den of the fox said, "We do not mention this in front of the mongoose." Sumerian proverb

Outskirts Of The Twenties: Polari

Non-CS fic: Late Back (Good Omens)

I have no more problem reading LGM than the CBB (though both are handicapped by a ridiculous shortage of time). However, I use the large text option AND read on a 19 inch screen with the story text set to screen width. I can't imagine trying to make do with a tablet.... let alone those invisible phone apps people keep telling me are the best thing since sliced bread.

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Castor oil: Triacylglycerol from Ricinus communis containing hydroxy-fatty acids.

As a reader I absolutely feel like that and I very often forget to go looking for drabbles at all now. I mostly (sorry, Senior Memory) can't remember who has written what I liked (that applies to all authors now, not just drabblers so please do not be insulted anyone) and so that makes searching things out very difficult - especially on SDL when it's only the last four or so that appear.

I access CBB always just via View New Posts and so I saw the drabbles and updates as they appeared. It was much more enticing then.....

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Cestina's dolls houses - The Last Rose of Summer

I too prefer the forum format because I like the comments from people - sometimes a remark or question from someone will inspire me to make the odd alteration to later posts if it sparks off an idea.

Nowadays I don't start posting a drabble until it's complete or nearly so, as I have a tendency to go back and change things in earlier chapters several weeks or even months later, which of course I can't do if I post as I write (Light Of My Darkness was about six months in the works before I posted it for that reason). Plus a couple of my earliest drabbles either had massive gaps between posts, like my Bridget Jones one, or I just never finished, period, like my Mlle de Lachenais one, and I feel mean leaving readers hanging on like that.

And to add to what Pauline said, my drabbling goes through cycles according to when I'm in uni. I finish next week for the summer so I can get back to it properly for a couple of months, but come autumn I'm going to have to either slow right down or chuck it completely while I do battle with the Honours year boss.

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'I'm sorry, I only play for sport.' - Lara Croft

As a reader, I really miss the "open access" to the drabble comments which we had when the drabbles were part of the CBB. I fully understand why the site had to be split and the SDL created, but while I still like to read other people's comments, there's no doubt it's slightly more of a chore to go away from the actual story in order to do so. I may be wrong, but I think the CBB-type format also allowed more readers to become more involved with a story and "debating" what was happening, and I know you weren't the only writer who saw their stories or characters in a different light as a result of those comments, Finn.

Yes, I too miss the informality of the comments and the immediacy of them. The format in SDL sets the comments/reviewers at a distance and there is no *chat* between those commenting. It's almost like they're afraid to be informal. I think that puts a lot of folk off commenting there, even if they're still reading. I also found people quoted more from the text on the board, because it was so much easier to do so.

But I do find it a lot easier to read the SDL page compared to the LGM one, where the words fade into the coloured background so I have trouble reading them, Must be an age thing, cestina!!

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"All books are either drums or swords. You can cut, or you can drug with words." (Amy Lowell)

Just come back on after two days and realised I'd posted this twice as it didn't appear to have stuck the first time. Just call me an idiot!

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"All books are either drums or swords. You can cut, or you can drug with words." (Amy Lowell)

I think I'm in a minority here, as everything I write has already been completed before I begin posting. It's very rare that comments have influenced me to change things, which means for me, the SDL works better. I love the comments I get & when I was posting on the old style CBB, I'd post a shorter piece more often, whereas now, I post a longer piece once a week. I also prefer to read longer pieces than short sections, too.

When I first began writing, I was at home full time with small children & had more time on an evening to drabble, something which is diminishing since I've gone back to work & children are staying up later as they get older. By the time I've settled down & done a general catch-up online, it's heading towards bedtime for me. (where I ought to be now as I'm at work at 8am tomorrow!)

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It's time to stop this dreaming, must rejoin the real world
As revealed by orange lights and a smoky atmosphere.
Heathaze, Genesis

I also like to have everything I write finished before I post it. I do sometimes rewrite bits, but the basic story stays the same.

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to pick up on a couple of comments about having things "stolen" in drabbles - what's that about, please?!

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dont ever tell me
insects are any more liberal
than humans

Some e-publishing sites have been lifting fan fiction from websites (not the SDL) and offering it for sale. There's a thread on here somewhere I think but I also saw a post in Trennels on LJ.

ETA This is the thread.

Interesting! I just posted this to the original thread, but for people's information:

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dont ever tell me
insects are any more liberal
than humans

Oh that is interesting. That I don't write very often is mostly due to doing other things, but can definitely also be lack of inspiration and/or enthusiasm. The problem with not completing something before posting it is that people are probably unlikely to read back over any improvements you make later. I always like to post updates on both sites (and A03, always find fanfiction.net confusing to use) but really prefer the SDL because it has better features, such as being able to see the word count of each chapter. And uses the houses system for different drabble types, whereas LGM has a totally different structure. Don't really expect to get many comments on anything I write since it's mostly extremely far from CS canon.

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My fanfic on AO3

I'm another for whom RL has superseded drabbling. I haven't forgotten about my unfinished fic, and have the next part mostly plotted out and bits of it written, but I don't have the time at the moment.

When I was writing, I was posting on LGM because I like the comments-as-you-post format. The reason I didn't post finished long fic on SDL was that when I tried to post a longer fic, I got into a muddle with posting chapters and never took the time to get to grips with it. So it's my ineptitude and lack of perseverance to blame there.

I honestly thought that being a full time student for the year would give me more time for drabbling - turns out I was wrong

When I do post (once every two or three years seems to be my update rate at the moment!) I tend to add short pieces to LGM as I write them, and shove it onto the SDL as soon as I have something long enough to constitute a chapter.

My current hope is that, once the next lot of essays are out of the way and I only have the dissertation on which to concentrate, I may find time to update one of the many half-finished drabbles which I have left languishing in my wake...

Okay, so I am probably being incredibly stupid, but I can't seem to find a thread to ask questions about the SDL and am hoping someone can help me out here! When I click on an author's name, I can't seem to see all of their stories. For example, it says that Finn has 47 stories, but I can only see 25 when I click on 'Stories'. Can anyone explain why this is, please? I thought initially it might be counting chapters rather than stories, but Finn's chapters definitely add up to more than 47, so I'm a bit lost.

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Gemberta Tallulah Cosmina - also known as 'Dinosaurs only roam when the high noon sun hits the glinting exponential glimmering magicness that would be the hypothetical heaven'.