caitlin_chan

Geez, I have enough trouble naming long-ass patchy AU fic chapters, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just remember if it hits you randomly at some point to write it down before you forget! I lose more fic titles and plots that way :/

Know what I like best about all these? That they go right nicely into canon (well, okay, the first not yet, but it could!).

Titles are a pain. Sometimes they just come to me when I've written the fic (or I get the title and write the fic from the title XD), and sometimes I'll spend hours and hours trying to come up with something.

Thanks! I hope the first one will fit into canon eventually!! *crosses fingers*

*friends you back* Love! ^_^

I'm glad you like it; a couple people didn't like the run-on bit in the middle because they didn't realise that it was supposed to be his thoughts and stuff. ^^;; Yeah, I didn't like him a whole lot until he got non-asshole.

I hope he doesn't die, too. <_<

I love Gaara drabbles, I really do. :) The first one is lighthearted and gives me warm and fluffy feelings, while the second one is so powerful... ^_^ Truly lovely indeed, my dear. Thank you for sharing these with us. :D

Haha, your awesome characterization of Gaara makes me feel woefully inadaquete. XD Nah, just kidding. I do think you nailed him down better than me, though. This just means I must get more practice at writing Gaara! ^_^ Oh gee, even 50+ Gaara x Matsuri drabbles later, I still have a lot of room for improvement. :D

Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked them. ^^;

Please don't feel inadequate, haha, I'm sure you do him well. ^^ I just spend waaaaaay too much time deconstructing him. Man, you shoulda seen the massive essay-thing I ended up writing about his character for an ML I'm on when someone was like "Gaara has no personality". ...Maybe I should post it on inkntendinitis or something, haha. ^^;;

...Whut. Gaara, no personality? ...Either that person is incredibly dense, or completely slept through every single episode Gaara has ever been in. The episodes where he fought against Naruto in the forest, there was some major character development during that time. Not to mention the Chunin exam, his fight against Kimimaro, the filler arcs... Geez! It's endless!

Way to fail at recognizing characterization, oblivious person. >.>

I'd love to read your essay.

Yeah, I was all "I AM HIGHLY OFFENDED BY YOUR BLINDNESS IN REGARDS TO WHO IS PRETTY MUCH MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER!" ...Though I never actually said that, I just wrote really long e-mails to the list breaking Gaara down into little pieces. XDD

Oblivious indeed.

Haha, I'll have to dig it up out of my stored mail and/or the list archives then.

...I've kinda forgotten what the hell I even wrote. <_<

If you ever find it, please let me know. ^_^

Ahh, it's a good thing we have restraint... or some idiots would fry and burn under the fury of our fire. ^_~

...I'm pretty sure it's still in my Yahoo mail somewhere. I may even have a folder for it. XDD Though it's not structued like an actual essay, but a response to specific questions, so I'd have to rework the structure of it...

Good gods, would they ever. XDD And I'm not even joking, haha.

Oh, trust me, I'm not worried about the format. This is not school, after all. ^_~

*defends Gaara fiercely... and Matsuri too* >.> <.

^^;; I'm an English major, so my brain just goes, "oh, wait, it isn't an essay because it isn't in essay format! I have to change the structure before I can call it an essay!" XDDD

*agrees*

Ahh, I understand then, but hey, just remember that this is for entertainment purposes. :)

Gods, I try, but it's just a reflex now. XDD I'm such a nerd. XD

No, not a nerd. You're just dedicated. :) Then again, you are an English major. I'm sure that stuff is embedded in your head. ^_~

...I have to admit, grammar/syntax/structure/all that stuff has been something of an obsession/love of mine for, well, years. Since I was, like, fourteen. ^^;; It's one reason I decided to do English - I want to teach. SOMEONE has to teach these kids grammar. You know there's something wrong when people with English as their SECOND language pick up on some or all of the grammar/syntax/whatever errors a native English speaker has made in their writing... <_<

Oh dear, I really hope I'm not guilty of that. >.>; And I don't want to use the English-is-my-second-language excuse, even though it applies.

I think that is a very noble and admirable trait you have there. Where the hell were you during my high school years? :P

Well, from what I read so far, your sort of big "problems" (though I hesitate to use that word - damn you for being so imprecise, English!) are that you over-state things sometimes and could pull back a little on the epithets, but you're generally very good. I totally know where the epithet thing comes from, though, because SO MANY PEOPLE DO IT, including a number of otherwise good writers. If I may, what is you first language? That would help ne understand where you're coming from grammatically.

I may have been in school myself, haha, it depends on how old you are. XD

Chinese - and most specifically, Mandarin - is my first language. I learned English at a pretty young age, but sometimes I get confused when switching languages. Damn the tense differences. ^^0

By epithets, do you mean the way I use different terms to refer to people rather than using their names? If so, then I have to admit, I do that on purpose. It's just a personal preference, but I get really annoyed when I see Character X's name over and over and over and over and over... >.>; But at the same time, I don't want to abuse pronouns either. Bah, I am simply full of eccentricies. XD

Ah. Ahhhhhhh. Gotcha. Tense differences indeed! Not to mention... what the hell are those called... oh, yeah, dur, all the tonal stuff. Rising tone and falling tone and all that. Though I suppose English makes up for its lack of that with all its their/there/they're and to/two/too homophone and chase/chase homonym shit. XD Oh, English, you are a cruel, cruel mistress...

Oh, yeah, sorry. Epithets are stuff like "the redhead," "the brunet," "older boy." (I've also seen ones like "the tri-coloured-hair boy," which made my soul die. ;_; ) They're okay to use, but using a bunch close together can be confusing and is generally seen as something to be done in moderation, especially if one uses long epithets: "the orange and blue clad boy," for example. (Which I have seen. Ergh.)

Getting the right balance of names/ epithets, and pronouns can be difficult, particularly when you have multiple characters speaking at the same time. It's one of my pitfalls - I have to go back and think about each one I'm using, why I'm using it, and how, or else I end up overusing them and stuff.

*grins* So you're familiar with the confusion of the tone changes, hmm? There is a sentence in Chinese that goes, "Mother is yelling at the horse," and the funny thing about the sentence is, all the words sound very familiar. The only difference between them is the fact that they are each spoken with a different tone. Gotta love that about Chinese... It's great at confusing the hell out of foreigners. :P

Oh, I wholeheartedly agree. Actually, I'm trying to be better about using names more often, but old habits die hard, eh? ^^0 I have to make a conscious effort to do so, but I am definitely trying to change that certain aspect of myself. Heh, I was worse before, if you can believe it.

Well, I have a Chinese roommate here at school, and nearly half my floor is made up of Chinese students, so while I don't understand what they're saying (I only know "xiexie" and "nihao," haha, and I can't even remember if those are Mandarin or Cantonese), I've heard them talk enough and been curious enough to ask about it. ^^

Old habits die hard indeed. Stupid old habits. XDD I used to be terrible about epithets - I've used "the orange and blue clad boy"-type ones before, haha. Shame on me. XD

"Xiexie" and "ni hao" are Mandarin. ^_^ They mean "thank you" and "how are you" respectively. I love pinyin, so much easier writing than the characters themselves. ^_~

XD Hey, that's pretty funny there. I used to see some strange ways of describing Yugi's hair color (of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime) that really boggled the mind... o.O They get points for creativity, I suppose...?

Okay, Mandarin. I remembered what they meant (though I thought "ni hao" was a "good day" kinda thing... I was close!), but not which Chinese language they were. ^^;;

Man, I've seen them, too. That "the tri-coloured-hair boy" is a ... 'gem' I picked up in the YGO fandom. XD No, no points for creativity. NEGATIVE POINTS FOR MAKING MY SOUL CRY! /bitchy