Discussion The Scribble Pad (Fanfic Writing Discussions)

Since we're half-way through the year, I thought I'd go back and check on my resolutions.

On item #1, I'm giving myself 10/10 so far, although that's a resolution I might break in August when we go on holiday.

On item #3, I'm also giving myself a 10/10. I did post several stories that weren't current challenge entries, but they were mostly written already and lurking in the bowels of my computer. Plus, all but one of those were unfinished entries for old challenges, so it's fair to say that I didn't "start new stories". Also, this made me realise that I have a bajillion half-written stories in stock, and I need to finish and post at least some of them.

On item #2 though... it's a big fat zero so far I could pretend that finishing my 2022 Kessel Run counts as completing a WIP, but what I had in mind is multi-chapter WIPs, of which I have NINE, and I haven't written a single line for any of those. Somehow I feel like I've been using the great challenge prompts we've had since January as a pretext to not work on them

So. Updated resolutions for the second half of 2023:
1. Not to disappear from the face of the galaxy for more than a week at a time.
2. To finish at least one of the multi-chapter WIPs I have on these boards. To make progress on at least 2 more.
3. To finish at least 3 of the half-written one-shots that are in deep hibernation in my hard drive.
4. To sign up for new challenges only if the story fits in one of my on-going threads.
5. I'll allow two exceptions to resolution #4, in case inspiration bites particularly hard, and only for vignettes. Two, do you hear me? Or I'll go without cookies.

*runs off to the kitchen and grabs all the cookies while she still can*

 

@Chyntuck You have 9 WIPs? Wow LOL I felt personally uninspired and didn't think I would ever be able to come up with story ideas but the KR/FF Olympics challenges have just been varied enough and have the best of both worlds: the thread is connected but each entry doesn't have to be ultra-long although if it is ... And because there are a wide variety of prompts for the KR and FF Olympics you can pick the ones that feel doable. So, my takeaway is that even the KR and other challenges still counts as creativity and the quality is off the chain as well.

 

I have one fanfiction that I am still working to complete, and I also have an outline written for a Non Star Wars fanfiction as well. I also want to rewrite an old story of mine on here, but I would like to significantly tweak the plot and conflict (also non-Star Wars).


For my current story, I am facing my two biggest weakness- large scope battle scenes and transitions from a slow pace focusing on characters’ internal thoughts to a fast action packed pace. I am also at the emotional climax of my story, so that makes it trickier to get just right.

 

Does anyone have a tendency to get ahead of themselves while outlining and end up with an entire clutch of scenes fully written out then lose the motivation to write the more important and timely stuff? I like to at least have a rough draft of big important scenes wayyyy in advanced but I just keep finding myself adding to the later stuff’s outlines lol

 

This. So much this.

 

I've had both that problem and the opposite as well- sometimes I decide the sequence of events without entirely thinking through how to transition from one setting to another; especially when I am writing a story where the main characters are split up and need to reunite somehow.

 

Shanah tovah @Findswoman ! May this new year be one of joy, happiness and creativity

I already updated my goals once at the end of June (copied below) and I'm pleased to say that I'm most of the way there I didn't drop off the face of the galaxy, I completed a (short) multi-chapter WIP just this morning and I've already been working on two more, and I already posted two of the three-half-written one-shots I had in the works. Oh, and I also refrained from signing up for a gazillion new challenge prompts, although I make no promises for what will happen when I have officially achieved all my 2023 goals, which should happen by the end of this month if DRL doesn't interfere too much.

Of course, the best part of all this isn't that I achieved my goals (even though that's a first) but that I'm still allowed to eat cookies

 

Me accomplishing my goals:



I'm hoping to use what's left of WIP Month to be a less-silent reader and leave some more comments at least. We'll see how that goes.

Congratulations to everyone who's made progress on or achieved their goals! And wishing you a very Happy New Year @Findswoman!

 

Sorry for the double post, I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice or suggestions for the following situation.

So I've started a few fics for WIP Month and Angstober, which is progress for me and I'm very grateful for that. But I can't seem to get anywhere with them. I'll write out a very rough first draft that's not much more than an outline but when it comes to expanding on that or adding detail I'm just drawing a blank.

I've watched videos and looked up advice but a lot of it is just "just write!" So does anyone have any tips beyond that for getting unstuck? How do you turn an idea into an actual story? Any advice would be very much appreciated!

 

@amidalachick I also find that the common "Just write!" advice isn't as one-size-fits-all as people think. Sometimes I have to walk away and let my brain work in the background whilst I do other things, and I'll suddenly come up with a sentence or scenario that clicks, at which point I surrender to the impulse (although that's never always convenient). I've also fought against my preference for linear writing on occasion, and 'skipped ahead' to write a chapter's conclusion before I've even started it, or a particular scene or conversation that I've been intentionally building towards, knowing that I'll come back and bridge the gap later, when I'm in a better mood to... well, to "Just write!"

Focus on the ideas themselves; like @Findswoman says, find their hooks, even if they're embedded in the halfway points. Do you have a specific location in mind, or a character, or an exchange of dialogue? Start with that, and the rest should hopefully follow.

Some folks also try free-writing, where you just take a blank page and write whatever comes to mind, randomly, ignoring structure, style and tone, and just see where your train of thought takes you. Don't delete or correct anything, just keep going forward. Whilst it's often considered more of an academic tool, it might get you unstuck, to the point where you'll circle around to writing useful chunks of your stories without even realising it.

Hope some of this helps, and best of luck developing your ideas!

 

@amidalachick something has helped me is to give myself a very small writing goal, like 100 words or even 50 or 10, depending on just how stuck I am. Sometimes doing just a tiny bit like this does two things: it gives me a sense of accomplishment (Yay! I met my goal) and it can help get the ball rolling on the story. It’s not foolproof, but it does help me get over the feeling that I have to write All the Words Right Now.

 

This is very true, and something that I will definitely try to remind myself of when I'm feeling frustrated or discouraged.

Thank you all for the advice and kind words! I appreciate it so much.

 

I'll second that, wholeheartedly. Great advice for any and all creatives.

 

When you're looking to expand on your outline/rough draft, are you having trouble putting words to paper to flesh out your existing outlined ideas, or are you having trouble figuring out where you want the story to go and how you want it to develop?

Others have already provided better ideas than I can for the former. If it's the latter, I can talk about something I do to help, though my massive amount of stuck WIPs is evidence that it's not foolproof.

If I have a general idea but not much more, like no plot, no story, none of those writing elements like character change or conflict or theme or anything, I'll go to the last part of the idea, the place where things start stalling and I can't get any further forward traction. For me this is initially best as more of a daydream/brainstorming session without even writing anything down, but YMMV. I'll take that last idea and try to think of two ways things could go as a result of that idea or scenario. They don't even have to be realistic or "correct" results-- they could be silly or goofy or something that would be out-of-character, since this is just to get juices and ideas flowing. Sometimes OOC actions could actually be IC with proper foundation work ahead of time and are a good way to shake things up too.

For example, if two characters are stuck in a room together and I don't know how to proceed from there, I'll wonder: what are two things that could happen with those characters stuck together in the room? Maybe one decides to start an argument with the other. Or maybe they MacGyver something together to call for help. Of those two possibilities, which do I like better? I'll choose one, then ask the same question for that situation. If they MacGyver something to call for help, what are two things that could happen as a result? Maybe their comm works but they reach the bad guys instead of the good guys. Or maybe a component breaks and releases a small amount of internal gas that makes one of the characters act weird when they inhale it. And so on.

The downside I've run into with this strategy is that sometimes I find it a lot more fun to just daydream "what ifs" instead of actually writing them down, so the WIP stays a WIP indefinitely. I've also had one story where I didn't have a good enough grasp of the characters' motivations and every single decision they could make seemed plausible. This led to a "paralysis by analysis" situation where I couldn't decide which path to legitimately go down and I stalled out for a long time trying to narrow the choices and figure out what I wanted the story to be about.

 

I'm not sure if this is helpful but what I have been doing is writing the idea down (in its raw form and what's in your head) and then revising it multiple times until it resembles something like a story. Basically, get the foundation down and flesh out the details later.

 

Oh, I like that idea! It kind of reminds me of the improv "Yes, and..." method.

Thank you again to everyone who's shared advice and suggestions! I will definitely try some of these.

 

I’ve found my approach has changed over the years. Sometimes I’d just write ideas as they came, as I got older I had been more likely to plan out ideas at least somewhat. Nowadays I have a mix of discovery and planning approach.

I traditionally try to have 3-5 scenes in a chapter, though lately I’m experimenting with 2 scene chapters.

 

I'm gonna be annoying and say "both" (sorry about that) but my approach has certainly changed over time. When I was younger, I almost exclusively made everything up as I went along. It was all instinctive, seat-of-my-pants kinda writing. Results were mixed. Nowadays I do a lot more planning, but I still try and retain an element of discovery to my writing process, because without that excitement and engagement, I'd get real bored, real fast.

What works for me is to plan out the Who, What and Why in advance, but then leave the How, When and Where blank. This means I know the story I wanna tell, and can stay true to it throughout, but then I still get the page-by-page challenge of figuring out how to make it all happen.

Roughly 80% of the time, this results in me knowing exactly where I want everybody / everything to end up, and I'm always aiming for that goal.

Oh, heck yes! Back in my youth, I wrote my own Star Trek series, with its own original crew. This meant maintaining a regular cast of ten characters. Some were very important to me, and I took great care in making sure that their actions and arcs were consistent, logical and meaningful. Then there were a handful of obligatory post-fillers; every starship needs a Chief Medical Officer, a Helmsperson, etc. and I just didn't have good ideas for some of those roles, so I'm ashamed to say that I basically wrote them as 'Lieutenant Exposition' and 'Ensign Push-Buttons' and thought I'd get away with it. Figured I would "find" them along the way, but after I'd written a solid chunk of episodes, nothing was clicking.

Problem was, some of my audience started to like them (despite their under-baked status) so I felt obliged to throw in the occasional detail here and there. Suddenly I had these relatively fleshed-out creations wandering around my pages, carrying all of these expectations. I got very lucky with one of them (some happenstance making me look a lot cleverer than I really was) but the other just ended up riding out the story. Hey, there were still buttons to push!

So that's me split between "wait and see if you get lucky" and "sideline stuff that isn't working" but the common thread? Just keep writing. It'll shake out eventually.

Also yes (again, sorry for being insufferable)! In fact, only recently, I realised I'd forgotten about a key piece of lore when developing a character, and had to scramble to alter some future exposition about them (whilst leaving my original error intact, as a reminder). I think I styled it out, but only just.

When figuring out the How, there have also been plenty of instances where I've gotten stuck on an individual chapter's outcome, only to realise that the most logical ending for that specific moment would wreck the planned ending for my whole story. Whenever that happens, I admit that I'm happy to make small-scale sacrifices in service of the big picture, in the hopes that I'll be forgiven when folks eventually see where I was going.

In addition, this might not be what you're looking for, but I enjoy the self-discovery part of the writing process, too. Every story makes me aware of my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, some of which I might not have taken into account during the planning phase. For example, in an ideal world, I'd be capable of writing chaotic action set-pieces, but whenever I hit a bulletpoint which says "...and then they fight" I invariably chicken out, and go looking for an alternate route around the conflict. I'm still trying to reach the same outcome, though, so I guess this is why I stay flexible on the How.

I trust my gut. If a conclusion feels right and natural, then chances are it is. These are your stories, after all, so ask yourself if you're satisfied. Have you said everything you wanted to say? Have you given your characters the send-off they deserve? Can you think of anything else you want them to do before they exit, stage left? Do you want to leave threads for a sequel, or tie everything up in a neat little bow? Either way, have you?

These questions get more complicated the longer a story, of course, but I reckon they're pretty universal. Whether you've just expanded a planned ten chapters to thirty, or you've simply run out of story to tell, trust your instincts. You'll know when it's time to end.

Hope this is the kinda response you wanted to generate! Apologies for rambling on. Maybe I'm not so great at sensing when to end things...!

 

@Happy Sando, nice to meet another Star Trek fan. I actually am writing some Star Trek fanfics, to include one where I took Law and Order SVU's Olivia Benson and made her the captain of a starship post the Dominion War of DS9 Canon.

 

I'm not sure whether to be thrilled or terrified about the idea of Benson being a starship captain! I might it'd be a tight run ship. Could also see her and Janeway being very good friends.

*

Currently writing a long scene fight between Namia and Kithera in which the verbal barbs hurt more than the lightsaber. Fight scenes are turning out to be stupid hard to write.