WIP challenge: day 1 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

New month, new WIP challenge! How's it going today, everyone?

Poll #9355

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

View Respondents

How's your month starting off, fic-wise?

View Answers

Great
2 (13.3%)

Good
4 (26.7%)

Somewhere in the middle
6 (40.0%)

Not very well
3 (20.0%)

Horrible
0 (0.0%)

What are your main priorities for the rest of this week?

View Answers

Writing
15 (100.0%)

Editing
6 (40.0%)

Sending to beta
1 (6.7%)

Researching
2 (13.3%)

Posting
3 (20.0%)

Something else I will describe in comments
1 (6.7%)

And five words or less about your current WIP?

View Answers

Tell us about the fic(s) you'll be working on this month. What makes you excited about them? What do you think will be a challenge?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I still feel kind of at loose ends, but someone from this comm kindly offered to take a look at the fic that was troubling me yesterday, so hopefully I'll either be able to throw in the towel on it or decide to keep working on it! I feel like I've got a lot of WIPs clamoring for my attention lately but have been having trouble focusing.

I'd really really like to finish the third part of my Natsume Yuujinchou OT3 futurefic series this month. ;____; We'll see. I've been having tons of trouble w/that too. I'm also going to write whatever prompt I get assigned for the Book of Friends exchange. :D Super looking forward to that!

What's relatively easy for me is banging out tons of words in a first draft. As ever, I struggle w/editing things beyond a first pass (the easy, low-hanging-fruit sort of edit!). Also my ability to gauge OOC-ness seems to be a little wonky lately. :/

[eve_doodle]

I have the same problem and it's the reason why I bless my beta every single day. Ze's ruthless about cutting things that aren't necessary to the plot, which hurts my poor tiny writer's heart, but ends up making my fanwork a billion times more amazing.

I definitely recommend having a beta look things over for you or at least act as a test reader (gauging the strengths and weaknesses of a fic before it's posted). I have the tendency of driving myself mad (Is he in character? Isn't he? IS HE? ACK!) and my beta usually calms me down and either reassures me that it's fine or points out places where I need to fix it.

It's a tough job and I'm lucky enough to have someone lovely do it for me. If you'd like (I don't know the Natsume fandom), I can always give you a second opinion on your work. Wish you the best of luck with editing!

[crowdog66]

I'll be working on three WIPs this month:

1) "Solstice and Equinox" (Garak/Bashir, R so far, rating may increase): Bashir figures out that he wants to court Garak, but he wants to do it just right -- in Cardassian terms. After weeks of undercover research and preparation he finally "pops the question" only to have Garak give the response that means "I'm thinking about it... convince me." There are 87 days between the Cardassia Prime winter solstice (when Bashir proposed) to the spring equinox (when Garak's indicated he'll give his answer), and Bashir has to figure out how best to approach and to win the wary spy.

2) "Ovum" (Garak/Bashir, R so far, rating may increase): Some Cardassian males are evolutionary throwbacks, capable of laying eggs when impregnated through the cavity that normally holds their retracted penis. Bashir finds this out the hard way when Garak turns up with four eggs in the oven. Rating reflects the serious discussions of abortion that take place during the story.

3) "When the Farsei Blooms" (Garak/Bashir, NC-17 in parts): My magnum opus, 140,000+ words and counting. Stranded on a remote Cardassian colony, Bashir and Garak must seek out a transmitter which is their only hope of rescue. In the process they enter a new stage in their relationship, one that is not meant to last.

I like "S&E" because of the slow burn of the story: it's an exploration not only of the G/B dynamic but of their relationship to many other characters on the station, and I love writing Bashir as cunning enough to keep a member of the Obsidian Order in the dark. The trick with it will be to sustain the right pace: not too fast and not too slow. "Ovum" is a nice tense story with flashes of humor, but also plenty of angst and suspense: will Garak be able to carry the eggs to term, much less incubate one in his own body after they're laid? In this case it's a matter of handling the tension in a realistic way and not going too far into comedy. And "When the Farsei Blooms" is an epic, pure and simple, with a vast sweep that encompasses a complex alien culture and (I hope) an enthralling and heartbreaking story of ultimately doomed love. Too many challenges to count on that one, I'm afraid. :)

[jagnikjen]

Started a DS9 rewatch with my son! Garak and Bashir from ep 2 FTW!

Bashir was so gullible and naive, wasn't he??

[littlebutfierce]

Awesome, sounds like you have your plate full w/a lot of exciting stuff!! :D

[jagnikjen]

Haven't had a chance to look at any writing for six days now. (Work related catastrophe.)

I never posted a goal in the specific post, but my plan is to be in my WIP every day, come hell or high water, and to finish the first draft completely by the end of this month.

So tonight I will spend some time in my WIP.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that work's been so hard. :/ I hope things work out all right.

I hope you got to spend a little time w/your WIP last night too.

[lilly_c]

Got two ficlets near ready for posting, so I'm getting them up tonight. I hope. I sneaked off to my room a couple of hours ago ;)

Fics this month will be You Only Hide for smallfandombang, and outlining more of my as-yet-untitled casestory. For the case story one I will need a canon refresh because of the timeline I'm planning on working with and it's been a while since I played in Killer Instinct 'verse :)

With 'You Only Hide' I'm excited because I get to do something that didn't happen in canon and go back to the childhood/upbringing of one of the main characters because his father was abusive and how it's affected him through his life and they way he's hidden all that pain. The biggest challenge for me is to remember that it's not my life I'm writing about (my mum's ex-husband was abusive) but to draw on my experiences and work out how a male would react to it all.

With the untitled one I'm excited because it's KI and for almost 2 years I was obsessed with that show even though they only made 13 eps. Good thing I got them all before MU got shut down and burned on DVD-Rs. It'll be challenging because it's been a long time since I played in that fandom even though I was alone in it. Another challenge will be to not get too obsessed over the show again.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for being so close w/those ficlets! Did you get them posted in the end?

Good luck w/your small fandom big bang -- especially since you're working w/material that hits close to home. I hope you're able to use your experiences but still keep yourself in a safe place mentally as well!

[lacerta]

I haven't written yet, but I just picked my 8 guro kinks and now I'm having a moment of holding my head and wondering what exactly I'm doing...

Everything will be a challenge about this. Everything.

[littlebutfierce]

Dream big, why not? :D Good luck figuring out a way to make all the kinks work for you!

[insignia]

I drafted about half a ficlet, and a short flashback scene from my main project. I also decided to time my writing to get an idea of how much I can get done if I stop waffling... and my progress today took about twenty minutes in total before I ran out of steam. Haha. So if I can just keep at it, this shouldn't be too bad. This is my first day trying a new writing routine, so I consider it a successful start, even if I didn't get masses of text written. :)

[dhae_knight_1]

Interesting. I find that I can improve on the time I'm able to focus on writing, but, in general, it's better to take a short break if I'm staring at the page, getting nowhere, anyway.

Also, that there is a huge eifference between being all fired up and excited to be writing a scene (and knowing what it's about), and feeling like you have to write simething you're not really sure about. :-)

[asecretchord]

I've outlined (in my head) the next chapter of Battle for the Dark Arts and have rough sketches on paper. I know what the first and third segments look like, but the middle is fuzzy. I hope to have it done by the middle of the month. I guesstimate it will be between 7500 and 10,000 words.

Am I doing this right? First challenge. :)

[littlebutfierce]

That sounds like a great goal to set for yourself for the month! Good luck getting it all down on paper, & especially figuring out the tricky middle bit. :D

[lullabymoon]

I had to resend the rough draft of my smallfandombang back in this evening because I forgot the attachment last night. *is a dipstick*

Got about a thousand words done of the draft done today and I'm pleased with how it's coming along - I'm starting to get ideas on how to improve it for the next draft. That said, I'm going to take a couple days break from it. Tomorrow is going to be a complete writing break then I'm going to try and finish a couple of porn battle prompts.

I'm rather excited about both, because the draft is coming together and because I've not written proper smut in a while (and I shouldn't have conniptions over it this time because they aren't gifts :D ).

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for such good progress on your draft -- hope you're enjoying your break today! & good luck w/the Porn Battle prompts. :D

[dhae_knight_1]

Not so much WIP's, as expecting to write another Criminal Minds fic this month. And getting the one I finished last month edited and posted.

I'm thinking Criminal Minds fantasy? With Hotch as a knight who really doesn't like the whole magical world he's living in, and who's accepted a quest to eradicate magic and magical beings from the queendom (Strauss', obviously!). Reid is a fairy (yes, yes, I know), Prentiss is a princess who's more interested in fighting than in sitting at home waiting for her father to find her a suitable match. I'm not sure about JJ, yet, but Rossi is a travelling writer who is, in reality the Lost King; the man who walked away from his throne, leaving it to his younger brother. And Garcia is a witch with more tricks and sleight of hand than magic, and Morgan her trusted rogue warrior protector.

Hankel is a three-headed dragon with a taste for fairies, and Foyet is a powerful sorcerer who's struck a bargain with Strauss.

I... Kinda like this idea, tell you the truth. :-D

[eve_doodle]

I don't know the fandom at all but I would read this in a HEARTBEAT.

[eve_doodle]

I'll be working on my monster of a fic, Dulce et Decorum... (35k+), in Naruto; hopefully, with the challenge I'll be able to finish it or at least get very close to doing so. I've spent pretty much all day editing the eighth chapter (as well as corresponding with my beta) and writing the last section for it, putting the chapter total somewhere close to 8500 words.

I'm also working on an outline for the first challenge from fan_flashworks and waiting for prompt-claiming to go live for dark_fest. I've promised myself that I wouldn't focus on any other WIP/long!fic other than Dulce so I can work on finishing it, but I can't help but scribble outlines for a Bleach mini!bang (yay heroinebigbang!) as well as a few lengthy Captain America oneshots. So many fandoms to play in, so little time to sleep.

[littlebutfierce]

Phew, that is a really long fic! As a definitely-not-longfic writer, I salute you. :D Good luck w/finishing up that 8th chapter.

[enemytosleep]

Ugh, not off to a good start. :| I didn't get any writing done today. I would really love to make a better update tomorrow!

This month I plan to work on two fics.

help_japan: I've been floundering on this one for so long that the only really exciting part of it will be when it's done! Also, because we were won as a pair on this, bob_fish is set to illustrate the fic. If I can ever get it done, I get to have her draw some awesome art for it! <-- You'd think that would be a bigger motivation than it's been, seeing how I've been working on this for almost a full year now. D: I think the challenge for me has/will be keeping the tone light and the humor flowing when I have a potentially large amount of sciencey stuff to wade through (it's an FMA fic involving alchemy and period ghost hunting tools and techniques). I think I also need to get over the fact that the auction was for 750 words and I am now past 3K. Either I scrap it all or I forge ahead, and the later it gets, the more I feel I owe it to my bidder to forge ahead and write the full oneshot this has become.

The other fic(s) will be for the Natsume Yuujinchou Exchange. Prompts go out sometime late next week or thereabouts, so I will begin working on that once I receive it.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh man, I feel your pain about the help_japan fic -- me & bay_alexison were moping about ours on here for months last year (I had two: the first was easy, the second so hard!). Good luck getting it finished! Also, the idea of a paired auction w/art & fic is AMAZE.

(& yeah, my late auction was for 1k but I felt like I owed her more -- which was good b/c the story was getting longer & longer anyway...)

[inkstone]

Bah, I've been off all day today. Trying to juggle the original stuff I'm writing with the fic is pretty tough.

Anyway, this month I have 3 fics to work on:

- finish fixing up the eastasianfandomgiftbag fic I wrote over the weekend. It'll be late, obviously, but better late than never.

- a Black Lagoon auction flashfic (way overdue!)

- a Samurai Deeper Kyo auction fic (way overdue!)

I suppose the theme for the month is "better late than never" in all honesty. Sigh. The big challenge is climbing over the "OMG I'M SO LATE!!" wall. (We're talking years, you guys.) I think I've shamed myself into avoidance mode. Double sigh.

[eve_doodle]

I know the feeling. :( Good luck with your work and if you need a cheerleader/support, I'm available! (I'm not familiar with the fandoms, but if you need some feedback on the structure of the fics or even a sounding board, I can help with that as well.)

[snowynight]

I edited my very difficult fic and write ~ 600 words on my very difficult fic sequel. It was not as much as I like, but I hoped that I'd do better the next day.

This month I have 2 fics to work on:

rarewomen assignment fic, which will come in Feb 15th.

My very difficult fic sequel is in Marvel fandom, set in an AU that Steve Rogers and Tony Stark are recently escapee from faerie realm. The premise for the sequel for now is that Steve's sense of justice crashes with the harsh reality of being a patrol officer, while Tony's pursuit of magic leads to obsession and unwitting attention from a secret conspiracy. My problem right now is that I need to overcome the challenge of writing and combing two story lines seamlessly, and I'm aiming for 20K, which's very scary. It'll be nice if I can have a cheerleader/support.

[dhae_knight_1]

Ooh. That sounds interesting! Have you plotted it out, yet?

[roane]

My big focus right now is to finish my (only) WIP, currently called "The Mystery of the Runaway Bride", a Sherlock/Doctor Who crossover--however, the story is changing a bit and I don't know if I like the title anymore. Basically, Donna goes to Sherlock for help trying to figure out what's wrong with her. Chaos and hijinks ensue. (I'm guessing it'll wind up at 8,000-10,000 words?)

I wrote the ending tonight, which made me squee with joy. I just hope it doesn't come too out of the blue and that I've foreshadowed sufficiently. And I hope it makes readers want to jump up and throttle me until I start writing the sequel. :D

[littlebutfierce]

It's wonderful when your own writing makes you that happy! Yay for great endings. :) Good luck getting the rest of it in place. :D

[bay_alexison]

Did a bit of editing of my Big Bang and mulling over a few suggestions Beta B suggested. Real quick, whenever I mention my Big Bang, Beta A is my current beta while Beta B is my back up beta and I let her look over some scenes here and there.

I'm going to be working on my Big Bang and help_japan fic. Big Bang I'll be dealing with the edits while help_japan edits and hopefully some writing. I think the biggest challenge is getting a lot of edits in a short amount of time as my betas are busy with their own lives/writing projects and me slow on making the changes.

[littlebutfierce]

Good luck getting all the editing in! You can do it!! \o/

[jesseszen]

Have received my assignment for an exchange. It has to simmer before a story comes together. It's exciting though because of the restrictions, sort of like how water finds it's way out of confinement. I have to do it so the pressure's on.

[littlebutfierce]

Ooh, I know what you mean about how the restrictions for an assignment fic makes the ideas pop up. I always have to let my prompts sit for a little while, too. I hope you come up w/something you're excited about writing!

[dagas_isa]

I sort of stumbled on a neat way of getting past writer's block with the exchange assignment I had last month, so I'm going to see about digging through an incomplete story and seeing if this helps with one of them.

[littlebutfierce]

Oooh, nice! I hope it helps -- & do you mind sharing what the technique was? :D

[ty_writes]

I signed up for a big bang and plan to get it finished before the month is over

[littlebutfierce]

Wooo, good luck w/it! :D