WIP challenge: day 29 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

Firstly, a reminder that signups for February's WIP challenge are open through the end of the month!

How's your weekend wrapping up, everyone? Were you able to get some quality fic time in?

Poll #9315

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

View Respondents

What did you do on your fic today?

View Answers

Wrote
8 (88.9%)

Edited
2 (22.2%)

Researched
0 (0.0%)

Sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

Posted
2 (22.2%)

Did canon refresh
2 (22.2%)

Took a planned break
1 (11.1%)

Took an unplanned break
1 (11.1%)

How many words did you write?

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0
0 (0.0%)

1-249
3 (33.3%)

250-499
1 (11.1%)

500-749
1 (11.1%)

750-999
1 (11.1%)

1000 or more
3 (33.3%)

& how are you feeling about the week ahead?

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For discussion: What's been the scariest thing about working on your goal fic(s) this month? Did you manage to conquer your fear & keep moving forward with the fic, or are you still working on it? Do you write things you're afraid of generally?

Comments

[crowdog66]

Today I wrote ~1550 words and posted the first half of a new short story, "Lost in Translation" (Garak/Bashir, PG-13 this part but will be NC-17 next part).

As far as what's been scariest... I don't find writing frightening as a rule: I've done enough of it and I'm practiced enough at it that I know (I think) how to handle words and deal with any difficulties that arise. The thing that's made me most nervous this month was working on "Ovum", because of the concepts involved: male pregnancy, which can be SO easily mishandled, and abortion, which upset at least one of my readers that I know of. To get through that fear I just kept writing, deliberately not over-thinking the issues and trusting my instincts in terms of telling a good story -- I figured that if I was spinning an engaging tale the readers would follow me, and so far they seem to have done exactly that. In my experience if the characters are kept in character they'll write their own through a situation, and I've learned to put my trust in that.

[littlebutfierce]

Hm, yeah, I kind of meant topically as well as mechanically, as far as things one is afraid to write! I think being able to shut off the critical voice for a while & pushing through the scary pieces is a good tactic.

& yay for posting the first part of a new work!

[littlebutfierce]

Same as usual lately: words come, first drafts appear, but getting them past that stage is a bit difficult at the moment.

One of the fics I'm working on for yuri_challenge has been a bit scary in that it's required a bit of... canon gymnastics? I'm writing two characters I like & have written before, but not together, & I'm not sure if I'm twisting canon personalities a bit too much in the process. I have a draft of the fic, though, so I guess I'm pushing through?

Usually when I am afraid of writing something it's b/c it makes me feel too vulnerable, like the reader will be able to see right inside me.

[laceblade]

Trying to get in the habit of commenting here more, as I'm trying to write more!

At the moment, I'm trying to finish a ficlet for eastasianfandomgiftbag, with a deadline of January 31st. No pressure, right?!
My strategy is to just keep word-dumping until I get a draft done; right now I'm at about 1,100 words. Making myself get through a first draft is the hardest part, I think. I have a pretty high standard for writing, I guess? So it's hard to turn off the voice that's all, "Cliche!" "That sentence flows terribly!" "WTH is the theme of this fic, anyway?!"
Anyway. The fic is mostly done! Trying to comment here to keep myself motivated.

Scariest thing about fic/writing goals this month was: surgery & recovery. I was too whacked out to write much beforehand, and was then KO'ed for a couple days. But now I'm hoping to use some of my recovery time to get stuff done.

[littlebutfierce]

Yaaaaaay! \o/ Also, I totally do the word-dumping strategy. & then I try & pare away everything I don't like. ^^;;; But yeah, yay for the fic being mostly done!!!! & I am super-impressed you're even commenting here cuz I know surgery was, well. An ordeal. :/

[laceblade]

Yayy! I finished my draft, it's 1,507 words, \o/

I'm going to read a bunch of sites I have bookmarked about editing/etc. (some from the resources post in this comm!) to prepare myself for The Editing. I might even have time to ask on my journal for a quick beta, hohoho.

[littlebutfierce]

Wooooooo!!! Good luck getting through the edits!!

[dhae_knight_1]

To me, the scariest thing has always been getting the fic finished and released into the wild. I'm always scared witless that people are going to hate it or - perhaps even worse - just think that it sucks. Confidence is an issue for me.

I'm 99% done with this fic (I hope! It's rapidly closing on 20,000 words!), but this one's going to need extensive polishing and rewriting in places before it's ready. I might even have to find myself a beta somewhere, to help me whip the language into shape. But it's the first fic I've finished in ages, and it's largely due to this community and Words Count. So... yay? :-D

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for getting so far along w/your fic! (& especially such a long one -- I am not a longfic writer, so I salute you) On Fridays or Saturdays for the check-in posts, sometimes people comment looking for a beta, so you might find one that way? I think a good beta can do tons to boost confidence before posting a fic -- if nothing else, one other person (& hopefully someone whose opinions you trust/respect) has seen it & didn't hate it!

[littlebutfierce]

500+ words, especially if it's something you find challenging, is great!!

Good luck surging forward to meet the deadline!

[lullabymoon]

Yesterday was very successful for me and I got my rough draft up to where I wanted it. Need to do more before I can send it in but very pleased with the progress.

The scariest thing about working on the goal fic has been not just that there is no other fic, but that there really isn't an audience for it at all. At least with the tiny fandoms I've written for before I knew there was going to be at least one person reading it but for this, there is nothing at all. It's not just about feedback in general, it's about if the fic is going to turn okay and vaguely in character.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay! I'm glad you've made such good progress.

Having no audience is definitely a challenge. :/ It's hard to trust my own sense of whether something is OOC sometimes, so I can see that would be even harder if you have no one to bounce ideas off of. I hope you're able to find a way through the fic that you feel good about even if you can't rely on fandom for help!!