Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

I mean, I might be thinking, "Boo, this sucks," but if I was really moved to give feedback, I'd try to be helpful.

 

I’m horrible at this. I want to take time and leave some insightful comments on people’s stories, but I have limited time per day for writing. I can spend it leaving tons of comments, or spend it working on my own stories. So, unfortunately, I often don’t get back around to writing those comments I intended to write...


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I don’t mean for my comment to come across as being snitty or passive aggressive- I was thinking that maybe there’s a cultural thing going on. On the other sites I don’t think it is as big a deal if someone comments; I think you’re measuring “success” by the number of hits your fic gets. Each forum kind of has its own culture, and it’s probably unfair to expect new writers & new readers to know that right away.

 

Nah, I didn’t read it like that, don’t worry. It’s just been bothering me a bit, I really want to leave other people the kinds of helpful uplifting comments I’ve gotten on my stories.


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I think the most negative comment I've ever left on a story was something along the line of, "I want to slap [Character X] upside the head because they're really being an [sphincter]."

And that had nothing to do with the quality of writing or how good the story actually was overall. I just saw Character X being a butt and called it like I saw it.

 

But even this is more helpful than "Boo, this sucks", because either the author meant Character X to be a jerk-- in which case, hey, they did a great job!--or they didn't realize that Character X was coming off that way.

The most negative comment I ever received here was something along the lines of "you can't be serious. This plot is so overdone." (it was an Evil!Callista/Luke/Mara triangle at the height of the shipping wars) and it bothered me at the time, but looking back, they had a point I am not proud of that story at all; its only redeeming feature was that it was the first story I ever finished. (and no, I'm not going to say its title. It needs to stay dead and buried.)

I'm torn between wanting to read this story and needing brain bleach...

Re writing reviews: I am so behind on this, it isn't even funny. Sometimes, I feel a little daunted, because I want to write good, insightful reviews, but that takes time I don't always have. I feel guilty just leaving a couple sentences, so I put reviewing off "until later" and then it never gets done. I guess I need to change my mindset, because leaving a brief comment that lets an author know their work is appreciated is probably better than attempting to write the perfect review and never getting around to it.

 

Because I am fairly bad at re-finding stories that I have read, I will usually (unless I am tired or mentally exhausted) leave a review before I leave the thread.

 

I have never really read a work and thought "boo this sucks" and actually giving that as a comment to someone seems pretty immature and rude to me. If I don't fancy a work I would be thinking more along the lines of, "yeah this is kind of a bit too funky for my tastes....gonna take a backseat to this story." Ideally it would be great to give some constructive feedback to improve the story but it's tricky if the author doesn't ask for it then I may be hesitant to comment.

My thoughts for a work like this....the hallucinogenic mushrooms must have been strong in this one!

 

Edit: I had a comment in here. Weird.

I think this is exactly the point. The larger site either don't have the will or the way the foster a homegrown etiquette for so vast a user base across so many fandoms. C'est la vie.

 

A possebility could be that Clan Wren was split over which side/s to support and your OC (wrongly) belive that Sabine's family belonged to the faction that was agains't the Death Watch.

Also, you want to write a Fanon thread post about your OC's clan

(We need a Obi-Wan smily that do the "jedi mind trick" gesture)

 

My attitude really stinks about now and it occurred to me that from time to time I have written in this mood and produced some stuff I was fairly proud of. But there is the other bad mood detraction of just not being able to write anything because I think all the ideas that pop into the old noggin are garbage, or not garbage, but I'm too stubborn to let my mad go long enough to sit down and right it. Anyone else write mad sometimes?

The angst can fly pretty good as can the drama. you can get some writing out that is expressive in ways that a good attitude may not be able to access. Well this is what going on in my melon 15 minutes to the bell, so to speak. Have a good night all.

 

I never write mad.

However, I do make a conscious effort not to dwell on an idea being "garbage", as the last time that I judged myself that harshly, it killed my fic writing for four years. That's why I appear to write everything that occurs to me; I don't want to risk that happening again.

 

Earlier there was some discussion about talking to family and friends about fanfic, well, I’ve been having a series of increasingly surreal conversations about shipping and fanfic with my husband. Mr. Baiard is not a big Star Wars fan an he’s never really gotten fanfic at all—not that he objects to me writing, he just doesn’t understand why people want to spend time making up stories about Star Wars characters.

So I’ve been trying to get him and the Youngling into the fandom, and I guess I’m doing better than I thought... We’ve been watching Resistance together, and I got some action figures of Kaz, Torra Doza, and Synara San for the Youngling (yes, the Youngling. Be quiet ). Well, she had Kaz standing between the two girls and Mr. Baiard started joking that it looked like Kaz had a decision to make, which then led into a discussion about which girl to ship Kaz with: Torra, because she’s more fun! No, wait, Synara because she’s more mature! And he starts coming up with all these scenarios about Kaz not being able to decide which girl he likes and turns to me and demands: “Is this what it’s like in your brain all the time? How do you do this? Do you just write all the different stories?” Why, yes... Yes, it is, and yes, I do. This is why I have the Infinite Ezras project, because it’s possible to have a lot of great ideas about the same character; why stop with just one?

I had no idea that he was into Resistance this much, or that this is what it would take for him to finally get some insight into why I write! (and now I apparently need to write some Resistance fic...)

 

I had to read that three times to get why you were emphasising that to us.

Suuure they were for your youngling. The writer doth protest too much.

 

It's just terrific that he unbent enough to watch and you're able to get together as a family to stretch those fannish horizons!

Oh my, understanding, that's so precious a thing.

Spouse cares nothing for any science fiction or fantasy: Quantum Leap, venerable Twilight Zone eps, Star Wars or Marvel Agents of SHIELD. He fell asleep at the LOTR battle scenes. Meh. That's the way the almond-kwevvu crisp munchies crumble ...

 

Spoilers for Netflix film Always Be My Maybe.

Please forgive me if I am repeating myself. I can't remember if I posted about this before. However, it was brought again to my attention when I watched the Netflix film Always Be My Maybe. Have you ever written a rejection scene? A romantic rejection scene. I remember many years ago watching Notting Hill and marveling at the scene where Julia Roberts comes onto Hugh Grant's book store and apologizes for whatever grievance had occurred and said her famous line "I'm just a girl standing in front of a guy asking him to love her." Or something to that effect. His answer was no. Roberts has done some amazing work in her time, but this scene has stuck with me about how vulnerable and genuine she is and how he, at that moment, tells her it's not enough. The scene is brilliant. A similar, but not quite as powerful, occurs in the Netflix film. The man has fear and anxiety about leaving the comfort of his neighborhood. His childhood best friend/crush has become a famous chef. so the celebrity/ average Joe theme is maintained. She is leaving to go to New York and he is not willing to go. The scene plays differently in that she asks him to go with her and he says no.She leaves calling in him a coward.

I've been pondering trying to write such a scene, but it cannot be written in a vacuum. There has to be a lead up. This is where my dilemma lies. I would need to write a longer story just to be able to include the 'rejection scene' before resolving it. As in most rom-coms, the conflict is resolved happily, which is fine by me. I am a romantic at heart and love the happy endings.

What do you think about this? Is it much ado about nothing or is there something to it?

 

gg

 

@brodiew Depends what you mean by vacuum.

If the events leading up to this scene of yours, has already occurred, eg. already written by yourself in another fic; written by someone else; or occurred in canon; then once you have absorbed all of the conveyed emotions, and know where your characters stand, nothing wrong with diving straight into this scene.

Sure, you can write a longer preamble, but you don't have to.

A round robin is a good example. Person A writes the lead up. Person B reads the leadup, and writes the rejection scene.

 

Can this marriage be saved?!!

 

@brodiew Oh, my mind has taken a dark turn this morning, reminding me that such rejections can come out of the blue, eg. if one partner has a different, and perhaps unspoken agenda, that may not have surfaced in any lead-up.

"Oh, whoa there horsey, I'm not getting serious with [insert reason here]."

You're a Zeltron, escort, I'm married, I'll lose my trust fund, you are not my type, myriad reason that were not a problem during the status quo, so wouldn't have surfaced during any lead-up.

There is an absolute awesome clip on Youtube, UK comedian, Romesh Ranganathan talks to Rachel Parris, a peer, in a cafe (unfortunately not TOS compliant), where she recalls using the Tinder dating app, and someone that she was getting on well with, asked if they should meet.

Rachel - "It was like, CLANG! No. No no. Sorry, I don't want to meet anyone. In fact, I'm leaving Tinder tonight. And I did."

Romesh - "But what you have to consider, is your impact on the world. There is someone who has been crying for two weeks, that thinks, as a direct result of him asking to meet you, you not only refused to date, you left the dating app!" *Imitates tapping on a tiny handheld keyboard* "No-no, she has gone! I thought she was joking, but she actually left Tinder!" Savage.

 

What a remarkable clip. Rachel, in character or herself (I hope not!), sounds such a heartless person as Romesh details the anguish that her Wannabe BF *possibly* felt. It was just a pastime to her and he *again, possibly* was Serious.

I like the "I'll lose my trust fund" reason stated, simply because it's related to Dad Doesn't Like You, but more solidly based on realistic greed and less used, I think, than Family Issues such as My Mother Wouldn't Accept One Of A Different Faith or the Daddy Issues one.

 

@Findswoman - this is a topic that resonates strongly.

As an author, I do not write epics -- just tied-together ficlet threads or short stories, so I don't have the problem of investing tons of literal and mental hours to a fic only to drop it. I'd feel totally AWFUL if I did.

As a reader, I will say straight up that if any author here or who has left ever comes back and says: "i'm gonna finish that story, and I don't care how long it's been since the last update, I'll read it. In other words, no author here should feel like: I can't pick upthat story, it's been too long."

A suggestion for returning and new readers is to put a summary of events up to the new update under a spoiler tag.

Something related to this that puzzles me is when an author posts a note saying: "I'm here and most of the story's written, I just need to run through and post..." And then they vanish.

A question that strikes me connected to this is: If as a reader you encounter an author who hardly ever finishes something, if they start something new, will you read it or hesitate? As a reader, I frankly tend to hesitate before diving in because I'm wondering how likely is it after I've invested in the plot and characters, only to find the story will be abandoned.
Of course, there's always the first time, so if it looks interesting enough, I might take a chance regardless.