Crap! Totally forgot about Rome! I made a note of it and everything! How was it? Other then the odd mercial brakes? (think the beeb should be knighted for cutting out the breaks, though I imagine the queen is probably waiting for them to start putting little BBC 1 pictures in the upper right, so that people will have less trouble trying to figure out on what channel to put it when they're reprogramming the new tube)

Pretty good - a little bitty, but still worth it I think. It's repeated on Sunday night around 11ish I think on BBC1 as well so you could maybe catch it there?

HBO has no ad breaks, so I am surprised that Rome was made that way...

Hope you get your muse back for NaNo!


Gabrielle

Aha, so the erraticness wasn't the result of that then. Hmmm. Someone else has suggested that it may have been designed to be erratic to underscore the 'journal' format of the show but personally I didn't really see that coming through at all. It may just be that there was so much to introduce in 50 minutes and next week's will flow better. I hope so!

Maybe the editors were TV veterans who are so used to cutting for ad breaks that they forgot they didn't have to...


Gabrielle

I'll talk about #3 and #5 and avoid any juvenile jokes involving the words number two... Drat!

First off, your NaNo novel is clearly way better than anything I'm slapping together. I really got into the scene from the very beginning and I'm not joking when I say that it hooked me in. So shove your editor off a cliff and just keep hammering away at it, because it would really be a shame to let any niggling doubts about what you've already posted get in the way of what's coming next. More I say!

As for the zeppo_stillness, how about the amnesty week thing? With both banners AND fics-on-request as prizes? (I'd write some ficcage if you need it *nods*)

Is there some reason why the zeppo comm has to be run the same way as the other 'stillness' comms? With weekly challenges and whatnot? I make icons from time to time but they require a heck of a lot longer for me to feel comfortable with them, for instance, and maybe the week long challenge time is keeping other, less-graphically-inclined-than-real-iconifyers-but-still-enthusiastic people from joining in too.

So there's the two suggestions. 1) a mega competition to promote zeppo_stillness and 2) a change of format - not that the format is bad at the moment, though. I'm just wondering if it's daunting to some people and that's why there's less participation.

I'm going to join up now, BTW, although I'm not sure if I'll have the time to iconify until after the NaNo :)

*blush* thank you! really - that means such a lot to hear you say that about Between Lies and Dreams. I thought the best way to introduce the plot was to just throw the characters in at the deep end and watch them either drown or learn to swim. Now I have to find a way to develop how they got to that stage!

For ZS - you know I'd actually forgotten about the suggestion for the amnesty? And no, there's no reason it has to abide by the rules of the other communities actually - we can pretty much do whatever we want. *evil laugh* Remind me again what the amnesty would be? A kind of anything goes?

Amnesty week, or just an amnesty contest, would be a chance for anyone, even people not in the comm, even people without an LJ to join in.

Broaden the spectrum of the challenge so that instead of a weekly thing, it would become a monthly or annual extravaganza with mucho pimpage and whatnot. Something like a 'Xander throughout BTVS' challenge, with the basic premise being to chronicle his evolution in the show through 144 icons, or maybe an Africa challenge having icons telling a story of his time there. Those are the two obvious ideas, but even just a Xander100 would be fun. Or I noticed there had been a W/X challenge and a B/X one. Those were of course interesting to follow for a shipper fan like me :)

Why not challenge for a depiction of all Xander's relationships throughout the show? Set an arbitrary number of icons (from 10 to 100) to show the key moments of each relationship from his POV. From hitting the railing to holding Buffy's hand in the corridor in Chosen. From the prom date from hell to the make up sex in Buffy's kitchen with Anya. From best of enemies to... well, still enemies but less overtly hateful ones with Spike. Xander's relationship to Angel, ooh that would be fun. His regard for Giles. And of course, Willow from the bestest buds to the top of the Bluff and beyond. A bunch of mega challenges rather than the weekly ones... No. In fact, make them AS WELL AS the weekly ones so as to incite more people to check back while the weekly challenges are underway for updates on the major ones. That in itself would get 'bums on seats' so to speak. Some of the lurkers that interest in the major competition might reel in could potentially participate in the weekly challenges too if something struck their fancy.

Announce iconathons at the comm and on your LJ and even at the Parrot. I know I'd do some mundo pimpage too. Done right, most of the pimpage comms would jump onto something like that in a flash and with the relationships angle, non-Xander centric fans might be lured into participating *is pleased with his deviousness*

And as a prize, some fic. Ask a few author friends (I'd help too!) to volunteer to write ficlets/one shots/bigger fics for the winners of the challenges. The winners could name the situation, the pairing, the characters and so on.

What say you?

I can't stand Chris Moyles, everytime I listen to him he comes across as a bully. I know he's probably not being serious but he's always putting his team down.
Apparently the BBC cut loads out of Rome, my flatmate has the US version and he said it's really really graphic and about 10mins longer.
Good luck on the positive outlook thing, I always try that and it never lasts :(