Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

Thank you for the support and suggestions!

Unfortunately, I cannot think of any instance where the Doctor magically knew of a separate computer room from the bridge / command centre, and heads there from the get-go. So it feels wrong for him here to ignore the bridge.

In the film, there seems to be a very short amount of time between engines going down and the creature going, "Hang on, company."

That could be pacing, but it works against us.

 

So...what does it mean when you lost ten pages of a first chapter and have no backup copies? I'm now in the midst of this problem since this morning when I had to throw out pages written in longhand because of soda spillage onto the notebook I was writing said chapter in (I know, first lesson is not to write longhand when we have computers now. Well, I'm an artifact, darling, and spent years writing in a notebook for my first draft, so my brain is wired to create that way).

I'm wondering if I should give up the entire fic, because I don't know what else to do (rewriting the original ten pages doesn't really work because, again, I have no copy of the original dialogue or description, just a short outline of what I wanted the chapter to look like...except I actually went against the outline, and created something I can't remember).

 

Oh no, that really sucks leiamoody!
I write half of the time longhand and half on the computer, so I understand you there. I sometimes feel like I'm more creative when I actually write longhand.

As for the story, maybe give it some time and see how you feel. I lost a decent size story I was working on in a harddrive crash once, and I could never bring myself to go back to it. I tried a few times, but it never felt right or like it was as good as the first time. But maybe if you give it a few months, work on something else and then come back and rewrite. Or maybe what you have is fine (if I'm understanding correctly and you have later portions remaining) and only need a small introduction to jump into the story.

But I wouldn't trash the entire thing right off the bat even as frustrating as it is. There are ways you can salvage it even with that having happened and giving it time might make the frustration of all that work going in the trash less, and make it easier to rewrite or rework the story.

 

Not sure if a different point of view would help, but I'm persistent and I would rewrite it...

...on the computer.

 

I still sometimes write longhand; usually if I'm commuting and have a sudden idea and no laptop access. I carry a smallish notebook around specifically for this.

 

I write longhand a lot right now. Mostly because my laptop needs fixing which I haven't gotten done yet, and typing on my tablet can be a pain.

I've discovered its a good way to do drabbles, because you can count each line.

 

Most of my actual story writing is done on my computer (though even that doesn't guarantee no loss of data - in my early fanfic days I wrote for like 8 hours one night when I was about 16, forgetting to save because I was a stupid teenager, and, well, Word crashed and I lost the entire end to my story and I never had the patience to go back and re-write). But that is mostly due to my lack of handwriting abilities (I had a typewriter in Kindergarten, that is how bad it is). But I DO sometimes jot down ideas/timelines on legal pads when I need a break from the keyboard/screen. Plus I think I just brainstorm better on physical paper (even if I can't read half of it).

Anyways. I think it is totally up to you if you want to re-do the work. I know I have certainly said "kriff it! I don't want to do this again". I say give it a few days/weeks/months and if the muse says "okay, let's do this," then do it. If not then don't frustrate yourself by doing something you don't want to do.

 

I'm semi-seriously considering moving the chapter down a few places and inserting one of those cards they use in restorations of silent films like Metropolis where I summarize what occurs in the chapter instead of trying to write out the chapter again. I don't think you can get with that in fanfic, though...but it's an idea.

 

I think its a great idea. If you still want to write the fic but not the chapter, its great solution.

I once had a fic, I began to post it way earlier than I should have (learned that lesson), and I ended up losing interest in writing it like 4 chapters in. I didn't want to leave it without an ending just because I knew it would bug me, but I also just did not want to write this like 20 chapter epic. So I summarized the rest of the story and wrote the final scene. Was it my best work? No, but I got to write what I wanted, had my fun, and was done with it.

 

I think that's a great idea if you don't want to do a full re-write leiamoody. I've seen people do things similarly before. I remember reading a story one time that the author had written a ton of the story but in a haphazard manner. They'd gotten to the end and just didn't feel like writing the in between parts they hadn't written. They gave it a bit, but still didn't want to/didn't know what to write, so they published the story anyway and when it came to those transition parts, they just wrote a summary of what they knew, said how far in the future the next part began and left it at that. It was still a great story and I was more than happy to read it, even if it didn't follow a typical narrative format.

 

Got any suggestions for what to do with an epic story that your eager to start sharing because it's awesome, but it pretty much refuses to be written in chronological order?

Like, as much as you love your muse for keeping most of its focus on this story, it still annoys the crap out of you by skipping back and forth in the timeline of the story.

 

Not sure if we're allowed to mention stories by name here, but JadeLotus does that kind of stuff a lot, in her epics. I can PM you the links.

 

Or, write the story before you start posting? That way you can fill in the blanks, and not worry about leaving people hanging. Jane Jinn & I co-wrote one years ago, it took a year before we could start posting, but we had at least 75% of our epic done before we started posting. Being able to go back helped a lot.

 

Sorry to hear about your lost pages, leiamoody

Your recovery method is worth a try.

 

That sounds a good idea. You can frame it as a flashback or a discussion between characters.
A good way is to have characters talk about what they did between Event A & B.

Even a loose outline chapter by chapter can help. Then when it comes to details to include those can be changed, rearranged, etc. A notebook/file for random ideas is a good strategy.

 

You could start the fic on page 11.

 

Start with Chapter 4.
One thought is that rewriting it will be much faster than the original effort. You know what you want to do now. And you get the chance to improve and fix the clunky bits.

The other angle is that if you find that part of you story an effort to retell, maybe the audience would feel the same way. Trim it down, rewire it's flow. Just climb to the radio dish at the top of the building, as they did in Rogue One.

 

One of the writing panels I sat in on at Celebration, was it Jason Fry? Or Delilah Dawson? Said, "Don't be afraid to kill your babies." Translation: if a scene or a chapter or something isn't working, no matter how you like it, junk it. Take the story backwards to where it was working, and start fresh from there. That's helped me in a few cases.

 

So, I have a strange problem and I wonder if it happened to anybody on here.

I did not write for about six months. I re-read one of my longfics last night and came across this passage talking about a large rock remaining behind a demolished temple, with a hole drilled in it. It's got to be important since I devoted good 300 words to it, but I can't remember why it's there and what I need it for. I know every other red herring, McGuffin and plot point in this story, but I have no idea what's the significance of this rock.

 

Maybe you just wanted to creat some worldbuilding/atmosphere?

 

Perhaps the hole drilled into it is where the key to the temple's secret entrance is hidden?

 

Nah. I never include things in stories for no reason at all.

Nope, the temple is super-primitive and the Empire dismantled it when they attacked the species. For some reason, one rock remained behind, upright and there's that hole. One of my characters sits down and draws it.

 

Maybe it was just some random image that came up while you were writing...an idea you wanted to explore on a subconscious level but didn't remember because you didn't like the visual on the creative level.

Or a brain fart that came about due to ill health.

 

Nope, no brain farts in 2016. There was definitely a reason.

 

Oh yeah, I've done stuff like that before. I go back and reread stuff I've been working on but didn't look at for quite some time and I spend a lot of time wondering what the heck I was doing. What I usually do is pull that thing out and put it way lower in the document for safe keeping (or in another document) and if it comes back to me later I can put it back in.