Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

Yes! All the time, for all the reasons listed above. Especially for new stories, or in-progress stories where no one commented on the most recent post.

 

Now that is one thing I'd never EXPECT to hear/read from any of the super-duper authors around here when things are post-ready.

I have experienced being stuck when I don't know how to get from point A to point B or how to detail a setting/scene.

I would assume the following things could prove invaluable and helpful:

* Having a beta or two.

* Posting the bit you're sure about and then using the reviews /comments of readers to tweak the rest.

@Tarsier -- wow!!!! If no one commented on the last post, that negates my second suggestion. And ramps up the anxiety factor as well.

 

Sure! FanloreDAHTORG describes drawerfic, the sort that for any reason gets written and hidden out of the light of day or perhaps shared with one or two others. I have one. This category excludes any plot bunny notes on a fic that may be published someday.

 

No. Not really. At least not in this season of writing. I guess, I'm the kind of writer that will post what I write. If what I am writing is not working, I usually leave it and move on to something else. Or leave it for a while and come back later. But, I don't recall having written something that I was shy about posting. Back in the day, I wrote a couple of Anakin/Tahiri or Obi/Siri fics that were as sensuous as the boards would allow. But that is the only thing I can think I would be shy about. It's rare to never that I would write a full fic and not post it.

 

Another fanfic "disease" do someone to think of a clever name for: When you know exactly what you want to happen in a scene and you can picture it in your head but it takes you forever to write it because you're having trouble putting it in words.

 

The novelization of the head-movie can be difficult.

When I hit a block like that I try telling the story out loud, for some reason that can flow when my hands don't want to touch the keyboard.

 

I am feeling like this at the moment Findswoman - a few of my past fanfic stories cover rather heavy topics and are quite dark and twisted; this was due to suffering from a serious bout of depression at the time I wrote them, so I'm not sure whether to post them nor not.

 

All the time! Although mine tends to manifest as feeling too overwhelmed by the project to start. Pretty much everything I've managed to complete only happened because it was started with the idea that "this is easy and will only take a few hundred words"... oops. There's also the really annoying cousin of the phenomenon, which is maybe a bit like what @Tarsier mentions. Posting and then worrying that I didn't properly edit or think through everything, and trying to analyze whatever response does (or does not) happen to death.

 

I assume that must be 'ficmute' .
I have the other problem, I can write easily enough but sometimes I cannot figure out the scene. Which is annoying since I have the scene before and the scene after fairly clear... The road from A to B is lacking. Hmmm, 'ficstruction'. that is?

 

That's actually a technique I use when teaching.

 

Wow, there's an existing word for it. I love it, thanks.

Go for the "Don't like it? Who cares, I'll give you more!" kind of a thing.

Leave a blank space, add it later. I do that all the time.

Do it. I responded to you in the other thread. Screw the world, our characters and stories are a part of who we are. As @divapilot once said, there is a bit of us in each thing we write.

I leave it and come back later, too.

As for the latter thing, are you saying that they were still within TOS? Are they on the board now? I am barely familiar with both pairings, though the earlier attracts me and piques my curiosity after I have started reading a fix-fic where an older Tahiri goes back in time.

I write within the boundaries, too. Since I'm repulsive to anything romantic IRL (I always say that I would try nearly anything, but then somebody looks at me and I'm like "sick perv"...), I can at least give my OCs some passion that I lack, I can give them sexuality that I will not be able to have.

However...the first time I wrote one such scene, I freaked myself out. I feared that somebody would classify me as a Furry, because the characters were aliens. Later on, much later on, I found out that some people rage-quit and even deleted some of their stuff when they came across it. I did feel bad about it, but at the same time...what's the difference? What's the difference, really? The next time I wrote a sensual scene, the characters were both aliens, too, of different species. The next time, too. Like, seriously, where do baby aliens came from? These beings are sentient and related to known carbon forms of life on Earth by their anatomy.

With Humans and near-Humans, I had two failed scenes of that kind one of which was almost abuse and the other resulted in the man quitting...and one that was another character's anti-sensual-dream, if that's even a thing. The remaining one was basically mocking a young man bragging about his sexual escapades and then turning out to have to be taught how to be good to a woman. Actual thing that went well? Nope. Never wrote that.

 

I should do that, but I think my brain is too linear. My plan B is to write a shorter story related to something else when that happens, and then I take up the a -> b story some days later. To quote Qui-Gon Jinn: "A solution will present itself..."

 

Linear brain vs. chaotic brain. That would make for an interesting discussion, too.

I write first-person stories in one go, without any trouble. I guess that I can be linear sometimes, too; but for third person stories, I have that zigzag approach.

One thing I would like to discuss is how we approach stock characters...not just the super-common ones but also those that TVTropes defined. Perhaps "stock" is not the best term to use, but in lack of a better one...

 

Well, with my jumping between stories, I guess that's some kind of zig-zag too.

For your next topic, could you mention an example of a "stock character". I think I understand what kind of character you mean, but an example would make it easier to see if I'm on the right track.

 

Some random examples:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StepfordSmiler

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EmptyShell

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheAce

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMentor

 

Aha, thanks @Ewok Poet . Then I had misunderstood. Will need some time to think about that one, but I grab the concept. They seem to be stereotypic to the extreme.

 

They can be a good starting ground. Even for figuring ourselves out. I'm a "Stepford Smiler".

 

All the time. Especially if I'm writing a character or time period I've never written before, though it happens with ones that I'm very familiar with as well.
I think that's part of why I like challenges with a deadline, because I've written it and I want to post it, so it's kinda the do it now or never kind of thing.

I too liked the term drawer fic. I have more than a few of those, I'm sure we all do.

This happens to me a lot too. When I'm trying to fall asleep, I'll play things out in my head, but then when I go to write it, I can't get it out the way I pictured it. It's so vivid in my imagination, and it's so... not when I type it out.

 

@Ewok Poet, I enjoyed those pairings back in the day, but by other site standards, they barely hit the smut radar. Chastely sensuous, if that makes sense.

 

Spit it ooooout. I wanna seeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

 

Re: Drawer fic : First, I LOVE the term. Second, I yeah, totally get this as well for all the reasons @Findswoman listed, but also the "fear" of commitment. Like, if it's the start of a long-fic, if I start posting it, I'm going to have to commit to finishing it - or rather I'll feel obligated to finish it (something I am working on! As bad as that sounds, I've been working on feeling not obligated to finish a story I've begun working on in a timely manner). Or, maybe more applicable to the term, if it's a self-contained totally finished story that is part of a longer series, or even a chapter in a regular fic, once I post it, I feel like I have to commit myself to the details in that post, and maybe I don't want to yet. Currently I'm writing a vignette series and it totally fits my brain/style of writing - I'm a very linear writer but with this vignette series, I can jump around the timespan of like 55+ years - so I'll write vignettes in this timespan, but with pivotal, "big" events (IE births, deaths, marriages), I know once I post it, I won't be able to go back and change how it happen or write it better - which is kinda silly because I know I can just write a note declaring something AU, but it (combined with the other reasons of anxiety and self-doubt) still prevents me from posting them.

I do this EXACT same thing. I'll play out and "see" or maybe even "hear" the story or scene in my head when I'm falling asleep, in the bath, etc and sometimes I'll go to write it out and it just falls so flat. Or - like today - I'll go to type it out, realize it is only 300 words and just go "uhhhh that's not exactly a story" (I mean, I don't like to say what constitutes a story, but it felt so much longer in my head!).

But then other times it turns out amazing and the brain just adds to it as I type.

 

Those half-asleep and bath things mostly end up as these glorious sequences of WTF in my case. I love them.

As for those viggies - whoa, you're brave! I would not dare.

 

Being so sure that someone would comment on a fic, and then no-one does, chapter after chapter, that's a killer

 

So... I have this OC. And, I have this song. And, I want to get them together (not a songfic, but inspiration). Trouble is, all this talk of imagination vs. writing it out has finally hung me up as well. I have posted nothing with this OC so far and the story I want to tell is of a 16 year old girl devastated by her boyfriend's betray, starting to heal and meeting a friend who could be her 'true love'. I've tried to write an opening three separate ways, but it's not working. I have yet to try first person, but I may give it a go. It would be a challenge as first person is not my wheelhouse. So, yeah, that probably made no sense but there it is.
The song is 'Meant to Be' by Bebe Rexha.