Challenge Dear Diary Challenge 2018|New year, new challenge.

Angsty teenagers are the writing diary types, so it totally makes sense.
Not that people who aren't angsty teenagers can't/don't, it's actually a pretty good practice. But when you are an angsty teen, everything is just so dramatic! (I say having been a somewhat angsty teen.)

 

Hey, Angsty teens are fun! I started fanfic as an angsty teen and I still claim some of my best work was written in those early years.

Anyways. My DDC planning advice is kinda similar to what has been said. What I do is I have a list of all the entries (just labeled 1-12/24/48 along with the dates I plan to post them) and then plot out my longer overarching plot (ie how starts, how it will end and what will happen in the middle). I (usually) have a few blanks so I come up with filler entries.

My biggest piece of advice is just to be flexible. Last year I wanted something (the re-election campaign) to happen around the middle of the year. It ended up being pushed back to like October.


As for me, I figured out the fic that was causing me angst, leaving me free to do my other idea. I really want to write it because I've had this idea for awhile but I've been afraid to write it. Doing it as a DDC would force me to overcome my anxiety.

 

In my first DDC I revolved about 80% of the entries around things that were happening in my life and used an OC, my mistake was to set it in an AU fic I was writing at the same time which is something I wouldn't do again or recommend unless you have seriously plotted out both fics and have them written out in advance which I don't usually do.

 

When I started my 2009 diary, I had only the first entry planned out (and it is good to least know where one is going to start when commencing to write)--as I had a year to write it in, I figured I could play around and figure things out as I went. That didn't work out so well--given that I haven't ever finished the thing--and while it was fun at the first, that changed once I had thrown up that first entry in public, and the panic of the approaching deadline for the second and unwritten entry started in.

Usually, I am all for having an informal plan--where basically, I can see how the general shape of the story is going to go, at least for the next two chapters/posts ahead--and sometimes all the way through to the end. And I should emphasis the "informal" part: when I first encountered a reference to Scrivener online years ago, I could tell instantly through the glowing recommendations that it was not for me.

I am also, as I wrote in my advice post back in January, all for getting it all written down as quickly as possible. Or at the least, writing several posts ahead.

Since I'm here, I am also going to include the Tough Love advice I have held off writing for years, and I think this is relevant to planning: this is a year-long (or six month) challenge, and there will be times when, even if you just love your story to pieces, you aren't feeling inspired. While sometimes this does mean you need to take a break, there are other times when you just need to forge ahead and write anyway. The thing is--while this is a hobby, and there is no reason to do it if you're not enjoying it--writing is not always going to be fun and roses and words flying in acrobatic swoops to the word processing screen. If you care enough about a story you've begun, you'll figure out how to push through the bad days to continue writing it.

You may have noticed--if you have ever read anything I have posted here on writing--that I do not attribute my issues with writing, which are numerous, to the vagaries of a muse. Honesty compels me to admit after thirteen years on this site, that--perhaps because I have an MFA, and wasted too many years of my life attempting to publish fantasy fiction--I don't really get the whole "muse thing." It's all on me: I come up with the ideas, I write the stories, or fail to do so, or get stuck, or rewrite the same sentence over and over (and over) again.

If this seems harsh, I can only say that you don't want to know what my graduate school advisor would probably say on the subject of muses. Of course, with her as your advisor, you didn't need one.

 

At present writing and drawing plus meeting RL friends are a pleasant distraction from difficult issues. The dialysis thing hits me harder than I thought and there are countless other construction places in my life.

As for my muse, she depends on me having time for her and being in a mood to bring something down to paper.

And here is another diary entry for Orson Callum Krennic.

 

So, is anyone else considering doing a half marathon for July-December?

I wasn't sure I was going to do one, but a totally new, totally random idea just hit me and I love it so MUCH (for those of you who have seen TWW, it will be an AU diary of Joey Lucas). But, of course, because this idea just hit me, it means starting this diary with pretty much no plan and "pantsing" it. Which always worries me. But, I DID have plans for my other two diaries this year and those ended in complete failure, so maybe pantsing something will be a good change.

 

@Briannakin, Yes, I'm planning on taking part in the half-marathon-- now that I've finally finished my DDC from last year Now I'm planning to do the next generation of angsty Jedi teens, with the characters I created for the Create an OC challenge. This time around, I actually do have an outline for my story, just a loose one, but it's more of a road map than I had on my last one. I still may wind up doing multiple narrators, but only two this time Scaling back, you see.. Hopefully having that outline will help keep me on track!

 

"Road Map" type outlines are definitely helpful when it comes to this challenge - just enough of a plan to keep you on track, but enough flexibility to let the muse do what it's in the mood for.

I'm currently trying to get all my initial ideas jotted down in just like bullet point form to see if I have enough material. I think this may be like a 50-year saga told in like 12 diary entries, so I'M PRETTY sure I have enough material, but I'm always unsure what I should do with like major time jumps in diaries. Do I address them? If I address every one, (IE "Man, I haven't written in this diary for X years") it'll get pretty repetitive. I think this might be a diary where my usual diary "logic" is just going to have to be thrown out.

However, I'm NOT doing the multiple narrators route. As fun as it is, it is just waaaaay too much.

Though, this diary is going to ignore one of my OTP and pair one of them with the diarist, which I'm not sure how I feel. I've ignored this OTP for other, shorter AUs, but this is going to be a bit longer than what I've done in the past.

BUTTT. I also still want to do my original idea I had earlier this year so I'm conflicted and being indecisive. I might have to start both come July 1st and see what one my muse takes to.

 

I had an idea for another one earlier this year, but now I don't remember what it was. But since I've not finished this half diary, I should probably just keep working on making that happen.

Bri- Is this going to be Josh/Joey?? Because you know that would make me the happiest person ever!!

 

I want to finish my two diaries I started, but in both, I got to really important entries that my muse just doesn't want to write. It wants to write other things and I know better than to try to force a muse. Maybe I'll come back to them when(/if) the muse runs out of ideas for new stuff.

YUP I started doing this like vignette/drabbly story series for Josh/Joey when the muse got hit after April Fools, but I never finished it because I kept getting ideas and I didn't know how/where to end it. I also didn't know where to post it because it was AU, but still referenced some of our OCs/events in our 'verse. BUUUT, I was just watching Take This Sabbath Day (I actually bought season 1 so I could watch episodes on the plane, and now I'm just randomly throwing it on because it is so easy just to open iTunes) and the diary idea totally just took over and all of the stuff I wrote will totally work if I rewrite it.

 

I have another diary entry from Orson Krennic.

 

I wanted to do a half-year marathon, but I promised that I won't be doing DDCs this year (seriously, I don't want a triple crown ), so...I'll just sit here, encouraging everybody else.

JK, I doubt I would've had time.

 

Admittedly (as many people can probably tell) my interest in SW has wained (and I feel so bad about it), but I love the idea of an Ahsoka diary for your song verse. I'm intrigued.

I'm SOOOOO excited to have Joey as a MAIN CHARACTER in a fic, because I love her so much, but the muse has never really struck for her in so far as Mav's and my continued canon. Yeah, I love Josh/Donna and I love them even more as I'm rewatching and writing more fanfic, so if feels a bit adulterous to have Josh be with someone else (says the person who ADORES Josh/Sam), BUT I WANTED JOSH/JOEY TO BE A THING SOOOOO BADLY when I first watched it, and now every time I watch the early seasons I continue to be just so disappointed (I understand why, but still). So this is 100% just fulfillment for me.

And fortunately this will be a diary you will totally 100% be able to enjoy from just watching the show.

 

I have kind of an odd question: I posted what would be the first two entries in Ronen Syndulla-Jarrus and Noemi Bridger's journals in "Freaking Out" before I decided that I wanted to do the DDC with them. I'm having trouble coming up with a title I like better, so would it be okay to start a new thread for the DDC with a slightly altered title? Or should I append the DDC to the existing thread (or would that be too confusing, given there are already comments there)?

 

@Raissa Baiard, just wanted to let you know that Pandora and I have seen the question and are talking about it. Not sure if we'll have anything definite tonight, but soon I'm sure!

 

@Raissa Baiard: We have talked your question over, and we agree that you should start a new thread for the challenge; and that you use at least a slightly altered title to differentiate it from the previous thread. Also: you didn't specify if you were planning to start with the two entries you have already written, but if you are, we wanted to remind you that, per our standing guideline for rewritten entries, that is fine, so long as they don't count towards the total.

If you have any more questions, just ask.

 

New threads are also particularly appreciated when it comes to indexes and whatnot in general.

But I completely understand the title frustration. I love this challenge but the title aspect of it can be frustrating. I'm really bad at coming up with titles in the first place, and I have left vignettes completed but unposted for months because I just have no idea what to call them. But with this, you kinda have to have a title right away. I currently have my first entry planned out in my brain (and those who know TWW know exactly what scene it is going to be), and it's probably not going to be a super long entry so I might have it up pretty quickly. BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WANT THE TITLE TO BE!

 

The Kingmaker is now up in NSWFF.

This is one of those where you do need to have seen TWW in order to understand (but it is completely separate from my other TWW works).

 

I finally completed my 2017 DDC: The Journal of Talon Tantiss: [Part 5]-Secrets Revealed Vol 2. This is the fifth year I did a diary about Talon Tantiss. Before that I did a DDC in the POV of Mark Tantiss (Talon's father) and that was a companion piece to the Second to None Duology. So, all in all, I spent the last six years writing 8 fanfics about the Tantiss Family for a grand total of over 650,000 words...which is longer than Tolstoy's War and Peace. Unfortunately, I don't have the talent of Tolstoy, just the verbosity.

I don't outline or plot out anything. I have no idea where my story is going when I start it. At the most I think of scenes that I would like to use and try to find a story that I can set those scenes in.

I am thinking about doing the half marathon in the POV of Talon's son. The problem with writing about an OC for so long is if you stop writing about the characters it is like you are killing them.

 

Thank you. I think my OCs kept me sane during the last ten years of angst that DRL bestowed upon me.

I did decide to do a short 1/2 year DDC written by the Marcus Indupar, the grandson of Mark Tantiss--my first OC. He is also the son of Talon Tantiss, son of Mark Tantiss.

[DDC 2018]The Journal of Marcus Indupar (Son of Talon Tantiss)

 

Congratulations, @Jedi_Lover!

Also...know what? I'm borderline, super-impulsive, PMDD is killing me and I kind of want to start a half-year thing I've been plotting for two years. WITH AN ACTUAL CANON CHARACTER.