Fan Art Friday (Downtime Edition)

Posted on by scott

It’s Saturday morning here in Sydney, but I might get this done before it turns into Saturday in the US. That is the power of the trans-hemispheric lifestyle!

There’s lots of exciting news coming up this week, some about Shay’s Story and some about the Uglies series in general. No it’s NOT movie-related news. You will know when that happens. You will FEEL it in your bones. But it’s still pretty cool.

In the meantime, here’s one of my oldest theories about fan art: We writers rob our characters of downtime. We don’t let them have all those moments in life that don’t involve fleeing from the Germans or swinging from the ratlines. We may start a chapter with character just kicking back and talking, but a page or two in, the Zeppelins attack!

This is because we want to write exciting stories, and we are all taught as tiny writers to jump straight into the action. But readers also regard characters as friends, and downtime is an important part of friendship. So a lot of fan art imagines those relaxing moments that are excised from canon, but which are surely a part of the characters’ in-between-the-chapters life.

For example, McL-Jessie’s vision of Dalek at home, presumably post-series. You know, just hanging on the couch:

Or checking out the tools of another culture, as per pockynightmare:

Or transforming into My Little Pony characters, as sue9000 envisions such a thing:

Okay, that was a stretch. But it’s an unwritten rule of authorship that if someone sends you MLP crossover fan art, you must post it.

The same also applies to cyborg pandas!

(You had to have been at the WesterForum meet-up to understand this. And even then, I’m not sure if it’s understandable. It’s just a thing that happened.)

From Deviant’s Firanda we are reminded that naptime is also downtime, especially if it’s non-canonically cuddly.

And finally, from SkyHawkC, there’s my favorite lazy activity, having a snack:

Okay, that’s the climax of Behemoth, but for the Behemoth itself it probably wasn’t that big a deal. You know, “Whassup?” “Nuthin. Eating a dreadnought is all.”

That’s it for today’s FAF! Stay tuned for interesting posts all this week.

514 thoughts on “Fan Art Friday (Downtime Edition)”

  2. Salt and I are from Eastern Iowa, so we are.

    Zaliz is from California, so she isn’t.

    I believe MM is from Iowa, but not certain. I am sure she’s in the Central time zone.

    I am not sure about Sophie.

  9. @436. I am a tracker jacker. Buzz…buzz…buzz… STING!
    @441. We had record little amounts of snow this year, and record high temperatures/ either super little or extremely large amounts of rains for the last five years. There are fires all over the south eastern states. And the correct term is “Global climate change” which means there are extremes either way.
    @Cinnamon. Is central the same thing as midwestern? If so, then I am, and so are salt and M@X. Sophie is from the South, and Zaliz is from California. And after typing all of this out, I realize that all of it has already been said. 😛

  11. @442
    IM DOWN!!!!! 😀

    Oh HELLLL NAW! Having a covorsaion about me WITH OUT ME AT HERE!!!

    @ M@X
    Mine is Stormie heh! Me and my bro have one. His is white (:
    It’s this thing we do, kind of like a fan fix thing but we do the lines thingies heh…weird but enjoyable :/

  15. Gave blood today!!!! Little scared of meedles, but daving three lives is worth it. So ueah, if any of you recieve blood, it might be mine.

  16. NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    GO TEAM IOWA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  17. Why on earth would you be scared of MEEDLES? They don’t even exist. Needles, on the other hand, can be quite scary. I assure you, though, that if I were old enough I would give blood.
    Night! GO TEAM IOWA!!!

  18. @ Middy Miles I think midwestern is the same as central. I’ve been reading your fanfic. I have to sneak down after midnight to read it. You did a really good job!

  19. Give me a break, I’m hitting buttons half the size of my thumb and “n” and “m” are right next to each other.

  24. No, I got cookies, brownies, pop, a t-shirt, AND doughnuts to choose from. I only had pop, a cookie, and a shirt. (to avoid all slams, the t-shirt was NOT with the food)

  25. No brownies? What do you have against brownies!? Brownie hater.

    So i read out of my mind by sharon draper and it was the first time i cried reading a book since prim died. Even then i only teared up. By the end of out of my mind i was sobbing. Dont get me wrong, the book is amazing! I read it in a day!

    Okay, so only mm and M@X will get this. I HATE the iowa assesments. My friends brother calls them the ITED iowa test of endless dots. There just a dumb renovation of an even dumber test(itbs). Its just like the old one but longer and easier. On the spelling part they asked if brisquley was spelled correctly! I said wth OUT LOUD and everyone in class just stared with glazed eyes and blank faces. I swear they’re trying to brainwash us!

  26. @475-I thought Rue’s death was more interesting…

    Nothing compares to Zane-la… 🙁

  27. I have decided…

    I am Team Zane, David…he’s sweet…but I think Zane-la had more affect on Tally-wa..

  28. @Salt: Actually, the ITED’s last year had a really hard section on the reading test, but they are stupid. I call them the Iowa Test of Educational Deficiancy.

  29. Actualy, it wasn’t the questions that made it hard, the passage was just really badly written.

    Speaking of tests, I’m taking the ACT tommorrow, little nervous, but I only have to score in the 20’s to take college classes next year and my PLAN test( the test you take next year to give a rough prediction of your ACT score) said I scored a 29 on the test and will score 27-31 on the real test.Even though PLAN was easier, I’m pretty sure I can score a 20 at least.

  30. I think the state tests are worthless. They don’t even tell you what you get right or wrong! I always do well on them, though.

  31. The only reason i like them is because a) theyre whats getting me into college classes two years early and b) they have funny examples. Like, we were supposed to choose a definition for fortify. first of all, it was like they thought we were third graders! apparently fortify is a hard word to know. The choices we had for fortify were
    a)to strengthen
    b) to make fort like
    c)to eat or drink
    d) to shorten

    I cracked up and was tempted to choose d

  32. @468. No kidding? Midnight? I feel honored. Or are you a Midnighter who chooses to spend your extra hour reading fanfic? (Sorry, but I haven’t actually read Midnighters.)
    @472. hahahahaha I get it.
    @475. Iowa Tests of Endless Dots? Really? Because we just shorten Iowa Assessments and call them I-asses. Did you know that in a few years the whole thing is going to be essay questions? Oh, yes.
    @479. Good luck, M@X! I’m sure you’ll do well. Trust me. I took the ACT last year and got a 28. You’ll do just fine.
    @481. All four of those choices were wrong. Well, “c” is partly right. The correct answer would be… e.) To ready oneself through the drinking of an alcoholic beverage.

  34. Part 5) HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Part 4) I know, i’m a nervous person. All day I was scared my calculator was illegal!

  37. @482 part 3 Yes, we call them that too. When my friend mentioned it at lunch it was like NEW FROM APPLE! It was especially awkward when skylar asked how you would use it. We were all “…” and then, actually im not gonna even try to explain because itll be all “one friend… then another friend …then this annoying guy…” and itll all be completely pointless and go right over your heads cuz you hav no idea who people at my school are.

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