From Sarah
👩💻Ugh!
I was holding back, and trying to hold out for a barf bag at that point.
👩💻Sarah: "Uhm - Anne wouldn't call anybody a dull brained little...At least not unless they had just called her something first and provoked her. And I don't believe Anne and Gil are such good friends, yet. That comes later."
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Since it was a rp list and not one for posting closed one-author fanfics, I inserted a tiny bit of realism in the dance scene. I'd deal with the huge wenchtantrum in a later post.
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😡Zoe: "Come on, Blair. Let's dance." Lavender said and grabbed Blair's hand and yanked him into the ballroom. She pushed past dozens of people until she knew that she was in the middle of the dance floor.
👩💻Sarah: People gasped and gaped in mortification at the wild girl that had just plowed through them. There were several outcries of "What beastly behavior!" and "What an unruly child!"
Elizabeth Montague just happened to be one of the people who got pushed. She glared at the rude intrusion and barked, "Watch where you're going, young lady!"
Miss Stacy was also taken aback and rather annoyed, but on second glance, she realized who Lavender was. "Oh, Elizabeth, that's the little girl who's blind."
Elizabeth's eyebrows raised. "What? That's her?" she asked incredulously, "if that was my child, she'd learn some manners."
"Will you look at that? She's hauling her date out on the dance floor." another woman exclaimed.
"Good thing for him he's sighted." muttered Elizabeth.
--
Zoe sent more email, and I replied to each point with my comments. In the back and forth stuff, I'll put our names before our comments to make it less confusing who's saying them...But think it'll be easy enough to follow, just because she's such an anal retentive twit..
From: 👩💻Sarah
To: 😡Zoe
😡Zoe: >Thanx for the advice Sarah!
👩💻Sarah: You're welcome.
😡Zoe: >....okayz...like I hinted in the story....Lavender can sense things...she's been blind for most of her life....when she was two she lost all of her sight...but since the ten years >past she's learned to navigate her way by using the rest of her senses.........
👩💻Sarah: But even that isn't really possible. For the kind of thing you're suggesting, she would absolutely need a super-natural sense, not simply just relying on her other more heightened senses. Being a blind person all my life, I would know. :) It's true, your sense of smell and hearing is keener, as is the ability to recognize and remember different voices. However, it takes time to learn which voice belongs to whom unless the voice is particularly unique to the ears. but not to a super-human point. It's more comparable to a group of people who can all sing on key, but there is one person in the group who can do that plus control the volume of the voice, making them better able to express a song, but not well enough to outsing a singing star.
What I'm reading here, though, is more like this: - you have a group of people who can't carry a tune in a bucket. Then there's one who can not only sing on key even though she's deaf, but she can sing the whole operatic repertoire without ever making a mistake or going off key, and also seems to know intuitively which music everybody else likes or dislikes...without having met them before. And that's just not realistic.
I just think you could make her more believable in this setting if you gave her a talent such as music or being a genius with numbers, and yes, a good intuition to sense who might be on a level and who isn't, but believe me, even with my own senses of hearing, smell, and orientation being slightly better at times, they don't enable me to do anything really stunning. I wouldn't dare go out in public like I knew where I was - unless I did know the place very well...Otherwise I would just muddle my way like anyone with a blindfold on or use a cain. And I can't tell when someone is looking at my top, watch, shoes, hair, dress, whatever.
I'll post , along with a reaction or two from some other characters. My own original may not react too favorably at getting shoved aside, so be warned.
Sarah
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This is going to sound really unkind, but I'd tried to be as patient as possible with this uh, kid, and she only kept getting more and more aggravating with her ludicrous ideas and attacks.
In the following, Zoe really gets infantile. For one thing, never did I tell her to treat me like a foreigner or cripple. So where she came up with this bullcrap - I just don't know.
From: 😡sassyblackvelvetine Subject: Re: here is a post for aoggfun!
😡why are you trying to warn me?! WHAT DID I DO!? And I didn't know you were blind.........but I';m not gonna act like you're some foreigner or a cripple...but I'll try and take ur advice....but I want other ppl to give me opinions.....do u know how old I am? I'm JUST 12! My writing skills are good? Aren't they? For 12 years old??????????
Yours Truly,
Zoe
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👩💻*back and forth comments*
😡Zoe: for your very well needed information Miss.Sarah....this story is set when Anne is in Avonlea and when she is 16!{I am reading Anne of Avonlea right now, in fact.} So...
👩💻Sarah: Then probably the best thing you can do instead of putting it on list is to put it up as a completed work on a web site.
😡Zoe: and wait...how can you be telling me the facts of the story! I don't want it to be the real McCoy! I'm just writing a fan fic!
👩💻Sarah: This is really supposed to be a list for character interactions. Roleplaying if you will. In an interaction list, everyone and anyone is supposed to contribute to the story, but when it comes to some real big events like Matthew's death, to override that, I'll need to revise the list discription to specify that we're doing that differently and not having him die when he did in the books. I just wasn't aware you wanted to take that route, but no problem, I guess.
😡Zoe: You write differently from me....I'm glad that you're trying to improve my writing but......wait! HOW CAN YOU BE BLIND BUT YOU CAN READ MY E-MAILS?
Furious,
Zoe
👩💻Sarah: My computer has a program on it that speaks out audibly what's on the screen, and says the names of the keys as they are typed. Moving the arrows, page up and page down will read lines on the screen, and from screen to screen.
Note: For more info on screen-reading software, freedomscientific.com
If you want a list to post your Anne fanfic with no character interactions from anyone, so that you have complete control of the story, annefic@yahoogroups.com And be sure to say at the beginning that you've altered the timeline a bit making it so that Matthew hadn't died, and Anne is teaching school to avoid confusing the other readers.
😡Zoe: it's just that...I wodner if you'll actually post my original work!
👩💻Sarah: Why would I do that? You already did... It doesn't need to be posted again. Besides, A character interaction group is - just that. It seems you already have your own ideas of what you want to write and how you want - all of the characters to react and for that, I suggested another list that accepts fanfics - in completed form or in chapters....not character interactions among other writers...just you writing and getting told how great your fanfics are...because right now, I think that's more what you need.
😡Zoe: I actually want to be friends with you Sarah...but well...if you keep on trying to correct me and bash all my self esteem away...
👩💻Sarah: If you think that's bashing, you haven't seen what bashing really is yet. But if you feel bashed, that at least explains why this letter is so hostile, and your age explains why you are this sensitive. I was going to make a point of trying to go easy on you from now on because of this, but now...I'm not exactly sure. Do I want to put up with you throwing fits at me every time I write something you might not like? I'd be a heck of a lot angrier at you if you were even just 5 years older. As it is now, you've got me annoyed.
😡Zoe: that won't be any good will it? AND I HATE IT! When you take excerpts from my story and write little things under it like: ((This was a very needless and stupid thing to say because
👩💻Sarah: Excuse me, but I never said anything you wrote was "needless and stupid" But you really don't know how to write a totally blind person and what they can and can't do. Lavender just...doesn't...act....blind...And that's the fact of the matter. Any sighted character around her would agree. A totally blind girl wouldn't just haul her date out on the dance floor like she knew the place as well as her own house.
And there are people a lot older than you who try to make their characters the main/central star of the story. Before you told me your age, I thought you could be an adult trying to make Lavender overshadow and outshine all the other characters, which is done too often in fanfics and it gets annoying. But that's understandable for you since you're only 12. You just might want a fanfic list instead of a character interaction list.
😡Zoe: we know that Lavender is blind)) or something like that. And I think I realize why you said that cruel little remark!!!
👩💻Sarah: There's nothing cruel about anything I said. You just can't handle being told that Lavender is not a believable blind character because she doesn't act blind...That's a fact, not a cruel remark.
😡Zoe: That you said you have been blind for your whole life...you're saying that because you think that lavender is unbelievable and what yous aid is unbelievable too!
👩💻Sarah: Wrong, hon...
😡Zoe: How could you be so cruel? And I can make Anne anyway I want to make her in my story because
👩💻Sarah: Not on this list you can't...If you wanted to make her run away from Avonlea to Boston and marry a highway man she met downtown, I wouldn't let it go to the list because it is out of character for her. So no, you want to write Anne exactly as you want her to be, then a character interaction list with other people isn't for you. You can just write your story all by yourself then and put it up on a web site when it's finished. You got on this list for the wrong reasons. You don't want rpg/character interaction, you want to write the way you want, and you expect people to think it's great, no matter how out of character or unrealistic it is, and you get upset when you can't have your own way. Well, I've got faults too, and one of mine is that I get annoyed and impatient. And my patience runs low and annoyance runs high when it comes to hissy-fits like this letter, and people thinking they can just get on my list and do as they darn well please.
😡Zoe: everybody else is writing there fan fics the way they want it
👩💻Sarah: Which is why they are *one-author fanfics* But character interactions and rpgs are not the same as a fanfic written by one person. With more than one writer, people have to strike a balance and work with each other. And fanfics still have to be in character and realistic within the kind of story setting it is to be good. It took me a while to learn the difference. But a good fanfic has to be believable, too, so keep that in mind.
😡Zoe: and I can write my fan fics the way I want it too...if I want it to be that way! I'm not hurting anybody else am I?
👩💻Sarah: Then write...by yourself...Since that's the only way you want it. But don't expect anybody who's a die-hard Anne fan to take you seriously when you keep calling Diana "Diane". Diana is a very strong supporting character in the Anne stories, and anyone who loves those stories is going to catch the repeated misspelling of her name. So don't take that as cruel, because it isn't.
😡Zoe: And don't you like the description of Lavender I made?
👩💻Sarah: *lying through gritted teeth - what else could I do?* I did, but it didn't fit with her actions in the story. And I'm not explaining that over again.
😡Zoe: If you want to correct anymore of my stories here's a description...you'll seldom need it...but I know you'll check over it for errors....here's a journal entry...that lavender wrote...describing herself from what she's heard other people say.
👩💻Sarah: Why would I check it over? You're not ready to be on this list. You've made that clear. Sorry you took that as "bashing" but I won't lie and tell you everything's perfect, because it isn't. Diana's name, and Lavender acting more sighted than blind. The time thing was just a bit confusing, but the other two things just shouted for attention.
😡Zoe: (btw by the way she learned to write because Mrs.Bruce taught her when she was very young...Lavender can read....NOT! She can't read...almost got you there? Didn't I? But Lavender LOVES listening to stories.)
👩💻Sarah: Ever heard of braille?
😡Zoe/Lavender: Hi Journal,
Today I learned how I look. A passerby said, "I look at that cute little girl, standing all alone, by herself." and the lady came up to me. Her voice very high-pitched and she asked me all kinds of questions and I heard her whisper (finally) to someone near her, "She's blind. She keeps looking at me but not at the right places." I foudn out later I was looking at her forehead.
"You're a pretty thing. With blonde hair so white that it could be mistaken for cotton or ostrich feathers and eyes, such a beutiful green. A spring green...the green you see on the horizon when the sun rises on the VERY first day of spring. And the green of the inside of a sapling. You have long white eyelashes too! As long as Baby Franklin's when he was born...but they shrunk now...OF COURSE. Your lips are full...nice and soft...delicate looking and you have a small little cherry dimple in your left cheek! Smile for me! Smile for me!"
The lady said more...like how tall I was...and what I was wearing...some lady had dressed me once...she had said I was walking with a tight little shirt on me and night pants. I was so embarrassed when I heard that...Well...I must stop writing now...I don't even know if I'm keeping within the lines...
Yours Truly,
Lavender
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