A Support Thread For Those Who Are Writing Unbelieveably Long Fics And Lack Time And Confidence

Been eyeing this thread for awhile, and right now I'm feeling positively overwhelmed. Originally I was going to write and 30-40 page (in Word) fic called The Legend of Black Saber , before I knew it, it was novel sized. Well I've finished writing, editing, and posting it, but it's not just one novel anymore. By the time the first draft was completed I had ideas for two more books, okay a trilogy, and now the trilogy has grown into a quintet. And this does not include my non-Star Wars writing. HELP!

 

Welcome to the world of short stories out of hand. My four plus book original series was supposed to be an 800 word piece for grade eight English.

 

I believe I have most of you beat, in time length (most fics take up to a year at maximus. I've taken three.) . What started out as a five page comic book depicting an Imperial pilot killing a clone of Darth Maul turned into a five novel, 270 page a piece saga starring a mercenary facing off against Darth Irae.

Taken me three years to mold the story into what I believe is it in it's perfect form. Resurgence of Chaos is what it is known as now. Tells the tale of the opening events of the Galactic Civil War before ANH.

 

Guys, I just finished my story, and it only took me a whole year!

So what am I going to do? Write a new story.

I'm just going to plan my next story better, and maybe lay out all the general events this week. I gave myself a week's break in between stories to get everything set and to rest up a bit.

I'd say that was pretty good advice!

Jae Angel

 

Hurray!

 

sometimes I have difficulty with a chapter due to lack of inspiration. I have a hard time coming up with stuff for the chapter. So much so that I've had to delay chapters by weeks or even a month or more. When I started this story, I was posting once a week. Then I lost my beta reader. I had to delay it. Then I gained a new one and boy am I glad to have her. She not only reviews my chapter when I send it to her, she tries to help me brainstorm.

It takes awhile, but I have gotten chapter 15 written (I started this chapter July 3, 2002, btw) and its almost ready for posting.

My only problem is trying to come up with chapter titles. Every chapter I write has a title that is somehow related to the material in it.

Well, that's my story.

 

My only piece of advice concerning writing epics is to try not to post until you have a significant ammount or the whole story complete.

If you wait until you are completely finished then you don't have to worry about taking a week long break from it to work on something else or to just take a breather. Then you don't have to panic when you loose inspiration and then have to spew out drivel to appease your readers.

With this option you can stop, take a deep breath, take a chill pill, and then continue writing at your own pace. Whether you are a procrastinator, pop your stories out quickly or otherwise.

If you wait until their is a significant ammount done then you can post regular updates and then possibly have time to take a break (albeit a short one)

That's the only advice on this matter I have for now. And I'm going to keep to it, i hope

As of now I'm currently writing a HUGE fic that started out in my head as a viginette, which quickly went spiraling out of control... But that's the reason there is a thread like this...

I'll be around...

 

ok, large with the "I feel your pain."

My problem isn't where the story's going. It's all already mapped out- in my brain and on numerous scraps of paper (never trust a monkey ).

My problem is that I'm an incurable perfectionist. I recently had a lengthy AIM conversation with one of my betas, who was trying to convince me that a tenth draft really wasn't necessary, and would I please just leave well-enough alone and write out chapter two?
...it doesn't help that one novel has slowly become a fairly lengthy series. The story in my head has come along much faster than the story on my harddrive.

 

I have 5 fics on my hand. Each time I start a new fic I vow to make the new fic short and less descriptive and just let the plot bunny of my back but eventually each post ends up so long it takes me a good 2-4 hours to write it. To make matters worse each time I reread the post to check for typhos I keep changing the post as new ideas keep striking sometines I end up rewriting the whole post as another crazy plot twist pops up in my brain-altering the whole post or even the whole fanfic. For that reason making outlines has never worked for me. My fics go from post to post.

I just wish I could write faster, at least as fast as the ideas come to my head, then I'm sure I could update all 5 fics almost daily. The other setback to my writing is every little thing distracts me, I can't write on the go and because I travel a lot I just can't seem to get into the mood. Even when I'm back it takes me at least a couple of weeks to get into the mood and then its time to go again. Aaargh!

I haven't yet finished the two fics I started way back in 2001, both are very lengthy.

For one of my fics my readers have decided to help me out by helping me write a sequel. Which is really great.

It's so disappointing when you make a commitment to post in a day or two and then fall short of it. Sigh!

 

I started my story Driven and it was going to be about ten or so chapters. I had it all written out and then I reread the story and decided that it seemed unfinished so I was going to make it a few more chapters to roll it up. (this was all before I posted it ) I ended up going back and re-writing the entire thing and detailing it so much more. I then decided I didn't like what I had done with it and changed the plot a whole lot and then posted it, not a good idea. I actually also decided to make it the first in a trilogy so that means a few years will be taken by writing the entire trilogy. Now I'm only on about Chapter 12 on writing and posting because I made the mistake of not writing it out before I posted. I really want to finish it but I'm having difficulties with the next post because it just doesn't seem right. Argh! I'm really mad at myself because it was a stupid idea to post it when I wasn't very far into the novel-length looking fic. I have most of it planned in my head and then I'll change it because I got another plot bunny and then I re-plot it and it changes alot. I really need to stop changing it. That'll probably be a good thing to do. Ya know, if you find that you have so many plot bunnies try to ignore them although sometimes they don't wanna go away. lol. I have that problem sometimes. I actually have many vignettes written and some other fics but they aren't gonig to be posted anytime soon. In case you were wondering that. Gotta go but maybe tomorrow I can post some more suggestions that I now have from knowing what not to do.

 

Hi, in September I'm starting a story called In the Shadow of the Chosen: The Obi-Wan Saga which spans from TPM-ROTJ Would someone please hit me over the head

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Solojones, I will hit you over the head if you promise to throttle me in some dark alley. I am actually working on my stupid, annoying, obnoxious, epically long fic. I am. I'm just rewriting the first 5 chapters because I decided large sections of them suck. I am therefore making no obvious progress and am deepply demoralized.

I need to find a RL writing group because I might write more if my "audience" knew where I lived.

 

What if I just promise to take your ritalin away and kick you in the head a few times?

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

I'll smack you if you smack me.

Wes's story needs to be told, but couldn't the authors have thrown me a bone instead of leaving me making the entire thing up?

YubYub and TG- Protecting fangirls from hormonally gifted fanboys since 2002

 

I had a bizarre idea from reading the TimeTales about the discovery of hyperspace on Corellia. I made my first post, liked it quite a bit, and then moved on to my second. I decided to title is with "The Next Day" and then the location and then...for the hell of it..."2 Years Before the Great War." Now I've decided that I want a post for every day leading up to this "great war." 730 posts. I've got 6 done. Fourteen pages in word. It's not exactly what I'd call an epic, it's just turning out to be...really long.

Seeing that this is one of my first FanFics, I'm glad there's a support group.

~ DS5

 

wow this is nice

I have the terrible habit of getting in the middle of a story and getting major writer's block..the I end up starting another story and never goign back to the first.
I'm in the middle of a dulogy, and I'm determined to finish it before writing anything else..
Anyway,great idea to start this thread

 

I find one thing that helps when I get writer's block is to sit down and write a monologue for the main character. The exercise helps to really understand their characterization and gives a hint as to what they would do next.

YubYub and TG- Protecting fangirls from hormonally gifted fanboys since 2002

 

Hmm.

Well, my first story was moving rather slowly, and I kept on getting new ideas and trying to incorporate them with it that in the end, I became so disgusted with the story that I locked it. Then I collected all the grievances I had with my old story, twisted the plot, added my new ideas, threw it all in my blender ( ) and restarted. Huge delay, but I started over fresh and not without a twisted knot of junk on my thread.

But I wasted a lot of time on that first one...and lost most of my readers in the process. So the reason I visited this thread was not for the "...For Those Who Are Writing Unbelieveably Long Fics..." but because I "Lack Time and Confidence." Especially confidence. And time.

Now the most I can say is that when you start a story, try to be as focused as you can. I was not at all, with my first story. But I once had a trilogy planned out in my head and my biggest hurdle is squishing it all into one story, with maybe a few companion vignettes.