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Discussion Writer's Block Party: safe haven for batty fanfic writers

Discussion in 'Non Star Wars Fan Fiction' started by poor yorick, Sep 6, 2008.

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  1. poor yorick

    poor yorick Ex-Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jun 25, 2002
    Are the bunnies driving you mad?

    Does your muse show up, whisper ideas for half a story in your ear, and then wander off for 6 months? Does she dump more ideas on you than you could possibly use, and then sit there cackling maniacally as you dart back and forth in confusion?

    Are you working on one of those stories? The ones that make you feel like you're carving a statue out of the side of a mountain . . . using a plastic spork, an old pocketknife, and your teeth?

    If so, you are cordially invited to the Writer's Block Party, where authors can lament, encourage one another, and generally procrastinate before dragging themselves back to the dreaded Blank Page.


    I shall begin the lamentations here:

    ~*~ The Tragedy Of Ophelia And Her Fanfic Story ~*~
    Told As Half A Middle School IM Conversation

    (14:57:25) ophelia: fanfic story do u liek me pick one YES NO

    (14:58:05) ophelia: yes i am trieing to finish you. stop saying that

    (14:58:10) ophelia: stop it

    (14:58:14) ophelia: i said STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!11111111!!!!!!!!!

    (14:58:39) ophelia: well nobody likes u, either. i hate u. i hate hate hate hate hate hate + a million times infinity HATE U and i all ready have sence January. HATE

    (15:04:27) ophelia: . . . r u still there?

    (15:05:17) ophelia: hello?

    (15:05:06) ophelia: if u see this and u r there plz write back

    (15:05:54) ophelia: fanfic story?

    (15:05:59) ophelia: i miss u :-(



    Current Wordcount: 17,332
     
  2. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    I've got that for an NSWFF story. I want to change the end of a story to make it what I want, but I'm trying to figure out how to do so without ruining the main character.
     
  3. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2005
    [face_laugh]

    ophelia, I love your IM conversation. :p

    My muse likes pestering me with rabid plot bunnies and then disappearing a few chapters in. :( I have two NSWFF stories I want to work on right now. One is stuck at 13,906 words and the other at an embarrassingly meagre 1,306. :(

    Oh muse, where art thou?

    Part of my problem is that I have so many stories on the go right now with my SWFF my muse gets all tangled up about which one to work on. And I'm bad with schedules.
     
  4. poor yorick

    poor yorick Ex-Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jun 25, 2002
    Nothing works on paper nearly as well as it does in my head. This is very frustrating, and it causes some fics to S---L---O---W down as I stare at the blinking cursor, trying to come up with something that sounds right, or else I get stuck writing the same passage over and over and over and over . . . 8-}

    I think that for every word currently on the page in my WIP NSWFF story (how's that for an acronym?) there are at least two that have been deleted.

    I would like a USB port that runs straight from my head to my computer, plz. This would save me much time and anguish.


    After approximately 5 hours of writing, I have this:

    Current Wordcount: 18,583

    That's around 1,200 words, or approximately 4 pages, since yesterday. To put it another way, it's an hour and 15 minutes per page--for a 2nd draft.

    CRUEL!! THIS FIC IS EVIL AND CRUEL!!!!1!
     
  5. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    I would like a USB port that runs straight from my head to my computer, plz. This would save me much time and anguish.

    Here, here. And yikes, that's a lot.
     
  6. Thorn058

    Thorn058 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2008
    I wish spoken word software had progressed to the point where I could sit and babble on about a story and it would do the typing for me and then I would just have to edit it(whole nother problem) I could sit here and do different voices and it would magically appear that would be awesome. Is there a spell or some sort of time travel device where in I could gain such technology. Floating post it notes that came when I needed them that would work also
     
  7. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2005
    Hah, I would love that!

    DBW is teaming up with Darth School this week. [face_plain] And I haven't even attended all my lectures yet! :_|

    I did manage to write one paragraph yesterday, though. At least it's some progress. :p
     
  8. poor yorick

    poor yorick Ex-Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jun 25, 2002
    I used to try to dictate chapters of a massive SW fanfic novel into a handheld digital recorder while I was driving. I had a little headset I could wear behind my ear and everything.

    The sound files could be sent directly into a voice recognition program, which then transcribed them as text.

    It sounds awesome, except when you realize that about 75% of the words were wrong. I used to have to replay the audio files to myself so I could re-transcribe them.

    I did wind up with some interesting material, though . . . like the one paragraph about it being illegal to download cheese directly into my lawn. Not quite what I meant, but memorable, nonetheless.

    Also, I now have fewer words. It doesn't matter, so long as I got rid of the right ones, but it's still a little depressing. :(

    Current Wordcount: 18,083

    (I don't expect that to impress anyone, btw . . . I just to it to give myself a reason to keep typing words.)
     
  9. Seremela

    Seremela Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 12, 2008
    :( How sad is it to have about nine very seriously halted stories on your harddrive in one fandom? And then start about ten new ideas in another one?

    Eh... come to think of it, that's twelve for sure!!!! Worse is - most have 20.000 words or more as well, and then there's those that are around 50.000 and more. The one that has 69.264 is the biggest, I think - I might have missed something, sigh, since I've lost sight of it all a loooong time ago.

    I think that's the main problem I'm having, I can't seem to be able to write something short anymore. And then, when the whole plot that looked so nicely to be done in say 1.000-2.000 words tops, has run totally off into wild directions it refuses to finish properly! Simply refuses!!! That's all I ask really, for the buggers to let me FINISH them! AAARGH!

    So when I see you mention that increasing word count, Ophelia, I'm jealous since to me it means your fic is still moving along nicely. Hug it and don't let it run off!!!


     
  10. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002
    You could always record and then transcribe.
     
  11. JadeSolo

    JadeSolo Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Sep 20, 2002
    But that's assuming that whatever comes out actually makes sense. That's my problem, anyway. :p

    By the way, ophelia, your IM conversation is so spot on, it's a little scary - especially the "r u still there?" [face_laugh]
     
  12. DaenaBenjen42

    DaenaBenjen42 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 15, 2005
  13. Thorn058

    Thorn058 Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2008
    The problem with Dragon is that you have to spend time training it to your voice and tendencies. It is a good starting spot but like others have said when go to have it typed you notice that the program misinterputed what you said. Use the force Luke can come out as any number of things and try speaking something about Harry Potter and watch the fun unfold on screen. Sadly programmers need to work on better software until then i will type while the muse has me
     
  14. poor yorick

    poor yorick Ex-Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jun 25, 2002
    I trained Dragon to a high degree of accuracy . . . provided I was speaking in long sentences in a noiseless room. :p

    The problem was that I was trying to "write" three and four words at a time while riding in a car.

    . . . actually, the fact that I tend to write in half-sentence bursts, interspersed with a lot of staring at the cursor, probably accounts for much of my writing frustration. [face_tired]
     
  15. Drabbi-Wan_Kenobi

    Drabbi-Wan_Kenobi Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 7, 2005
    When I get writer's block, I just wait for it to get tired and leave, which usually happens within two or three months. [face_mischief]
     
  16. Quigonjecca

    Quigonjecca Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 2, 2007
    Heh. I've had writer's block for close to a month now, and that's the longest it's ever stayed. Usually it's gone in two or three days, a week max. Not this time. It's killing me! :(

    It seems like 'only yesterday' I was able to whip out vignettes like they were nothing. Now I shout with glee if I can squeeze out 500 words of inspiration. Oi.

    LOL! But I'll keep trying!
     
  17. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002
    Drabbles are a good way to practice getting over. If you force yourself to write 100 words of something every day, the inspiration will come.
     
  18. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2005
    Forcing myself to do that is a problem though. :p I can't do drabbles. :( I either write too little or too much; so I stick with hacking away whenever the Muse commands, which is often... I just get distracted by things in DRL. What's really bad is when the Muse is commanding me to write, but my brain doesn't feeling like working so I end up staring at an empty Word document for hours... and hours... and hours... [face_tired] [face_frustrated]
     
  19. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    Then just try to write something every day. Well, maybe not you specifically, but people who aren't taking a million hours :p
     
  20. SilSolo

    SilSolo Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 5, 2004
    very hilarious IM convo ophelia. sounds like me and all of my bunnies, vid, fanfic, art, all of 'em put together whenever I have too much work to do.

    it's like... umm... I need to prep for exams, and do all this stuff, and work, and I don't have time to write but the ideas won't go away.

    Convo in my head:

    Death Note fanfic: c'mon, sil im begging to be updated
    Nother NSWFF: YOu've not touched me in a year. Write me!
    Giant robot costume: screw writing u gotta build more of me!
    etc
    Sil: all of u stop it plz!
     
  21. JadeSolo

    JadeSolo Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 20, 2002
    Sometimes I think about Penny, the assistant from "Stranger Than Fiction," and all her tricks to get authors writing. Reading poems, notecards on the floor - I always wondered what she'd written on those cards. Maybe something along the lines of, "Write, damn you!!!"

    Matt Stover once said (I think it was at Celebration 3) that to get over a block, just write one difficult paragraph. Then write another. Then move on to the next. Sort of a "one day at a time" philosophy. :p
     
  22. poor yorick

    poor yorick Ex-Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jun 25, 2002
    Right now, I know perfectly well what I should be doing on my story, and I have the time to do it . . . I just don't feel like it.

    This happens to me a lot. :oops:

    You'd think it wouldn't matter, since I don't get paid and I don't usually post WIP's that could leave readers dangling and I could be cleaning my apartment instead and actually the whole thing is illegal anyway.

    But it does. It just does.

    I'm not happy unless my writing project is progressing, but I hate the actual writing--especially the start-up bit.

    I need a handful of those mini Koosh balls or something to randomly throw at the screen when I hate it more than usual. Or another voodoo doll . . . I had a voodoo doll for a novel once. I stabbed it often.

    . . . this is deeply sick, isn't it? [face_worried]
     
  23. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002
    I just watched that yesterday :D

    [face_laugh] The voodoo doll sounds funny :D

    I went to hear and author speak once and she said that you shouldn't sit around waiting for inspiration to come, you should just write and write, even though it's hard, and then eventually while you're writing, inspiration will come.
     
  24. Miana Kenobi

    Miana Kenobi Admin Emeritus star 8 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Apr 5, 2000
    My muse is dumb like that. I sat down and tried to write the other night and got nothing. However, it decided to pick up on a fic that I've been working on last year instead.
     
  25. Ceillean

    Ceillean Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2001
    The muse is evil. [face_plain]

    I've been trying to finish a fanfic of mine and I can't because I have no words. The insipiration sort of just slipped away. But I force myself to type at least a page and then something entirely different comes out and it's a whole new story line with new plot bunnies! It's so annoying!!

    But I've noticed it helps when you change scenery to write. During my lunch break at work I have my notebook with me and it actually works.

    I'm really looking forward to Nano but I already see me ripping my hair out because the muse will leave me. :(
     
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