writethisfanfic | WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 24 -- Friday

linaewen posting in

It's Friday and time for another check in! It also seems like a good day for a post about sharing things like snippets, requests for betas, and chatting about our fics in general. To get the ball rolling, here's a longish but appropriate quote for the day:

"... You generally start out with some overall idea
that you can see fairly clearly, as if you were standing on a dock
and looking at a ship on the ocean.
At first you can see the entire ship, but then as you begin work
you're in the boiler room and you can't see the ship anymore...
What you really want in an editor is someone
who's still on the dock, who can say,
Hi, I'm looking at your ship, and it's missing a bow, the front mast is crooked,
and it looks to me as if your propellers are going to have to be fixed."

-- Michael Chrichton

Daily Check In

1. How is it going for you today with your writing?

Writing happened and I have a word count to prove it!
Research happened!
Editing happened!
Sending to my beta happened!
Posting happened!
Taking a break happened!
Life happened -- but there's always tomorrow!

2. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most positive, how are you feeling about your writing efforts this past week as a whole?

Weekly Snippet/Beta/Chat:

1. Are you blocked? Are your characters refusing to talk to you? Has your muse unexpectedly switched gears on you? Is offline life giving you a pain? Share with us about it and get some sympathy and encouragement!

2. Are you excited about your story? Are the words flowing and the plot racing along? Share with us what is going right for you!

3. If you like, why not share a snippet, a paragraph or a link to something you're working on this week?

4. Are you in need of someone with perspective who can see the whole ship instead of just the boiler room? Need help with editing or beta work on your writing? Let us know and we'll see what we can do to help you out!

5. Is there anything you think you'll do differently next week in your writing to have a greater impact on what you accomplish? Or anything you'll keep on doing because you had a wonderfully successful week?

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From:

linaewen

I'm still deep in research/outlining/thinking through various plot lines and haven't written anything yet -- though I feel the beginnings of an opening sentence for the chapter forming in my mind! I have been away from this particular WIP for such a long time that I realized burying myself in preparation like this is the best thing I can do to get back in the right frame of mind for writing. I'm getting close now, I'm certain there will be a decent word count before the weekend is out -- maybe even something to report later today!

So even though I haven't written words yet that will result in a chapter, I'm feeling like I'm at a 7 this week for my writing -- simply because I'm immersed in it again and I'm seeing it as an awesome tale to be told instead of a burden that I'm ignoring. ;-)

I don't have a current snippet to share, but I have a very old one that struck me as being particularly nice today; I was posting a re-edited chapter at Ao3 and was struck by this bit of writing that reminds me that I can sometimes put some good words together to say what I want to say:

"Once a deed is done," Linhir said firmly, "there are consequences which cannot be changed -- for you, as well as for others. But those consequences can be tempered by how you respond to future testing. To dwell on your weakness now will only cripple you and open the door to further failure. If you allow your past yielding to weaken your future resolve, temptation will become an excuse for continued failure, rather than a fresh opportunity to make the right choice. You say you have failed -- so be it. Let that be the end of it. Do you wish this failure to bind you forever?"

"No, I do not wish that."

"Then do not let your doubt overcome you, or weaken your confidence. Surely you shall be tested again -- but let that testing be an opportunity for victory, rather than an assumed failure, or the means of proving your weakness. You have learned something from this; allow it to change you, so that you may move on -- not forgetting, but letting go."

From:

crowdog66

So far today, life has happened: I had to get work done on a paying project this morning and am now about to go out to lunch with friends, so if I get any writing done it will be much later this afternoon or early this evening.

Rating for the week: 10/10. High word count, and my readers seem to like what I've written immensely! I've even stepped foot back into a fandom that I haven't written for in over a year (A.I.: Artificial Intelligence). Writing both that universe and DS9 are ticking along smoothly and prolifically.

Here's a snippet from that dark-fest fic, "The Unknown Country":

*****************************

It was never meant to last.

The first anomalies, standing out even in Joe’s unusual profile, showed up during a routine six-month maintenance check. Looking at them on a screen, seeing their spikes like infant thorns nestling in a profusion of roses, Hobby had felt the first chill of cold dread creep down his spine. He was the world’s expert on this subject and he had no idea what he was looking at — he only knew that if it got worse, it would spell the end of everything.

For a while Joe had been unaffected — on the outside. But Hobby, running neuronal scans every two days, could see the deterioration accelerating, and when Joe began to talk about David again, intermittently at first, then more and more compulsively, he’d begun to suspect the nature of the horror he was facing. The mirroring process paths that made Joe special and unique, and so enthralling to his human owner, had developed a deadly resonance concerning anything to do with the data trace “David”: all of Joe’s processor power was being drawn into the increasing obsession, and the strain was tearing his rudimentary mind apart.

And there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that Hobby could to do stop it.

So he stayed with Joe, and he held him and caressed him to satisfy the lover-robot’s sensuality subroutines to the full, and he listened to him, and he discussed again and again everything they knew about the lost child robot. And when Joe at last fell silent, his emerald gaze losing focus and all his attention turning utterly inward, Hobby had taken his lovely face in both hands, and kissed him tenderly one last time, and tried to deny the way his heart was shattering, falling in a shower of velvet petals at their feet.

From:

crowdog66

What a lovely philosophical sentiment, elegantly conveyed! :)

From:

asecretchord

I got kind of stuck in one place (language issue, not plot issue) so I skipped over it, wrote 1300 words that I'm relatively happy with and now I've backed myself into a corner (I think) and I'm not sure how to get myself out of it. So I'll probably skip over that as well, write past it, then circle back and figure out what's missing so I can build a bridge over that river and get Radar a date with a hair dryer.

***a very long "snippet"***

"Have you learnt yet the three rules of Apparation?" Dumbledore asked as he pressed his fingertips together.

Harry shook his head. "The only time I've ever Apparated was the night you came and collected me at the Dursleys." He grimaced at the recollection. "Didn't care for it much, though it's loads better than travelling by Portkey."

"Destination, determination, deliberation. You must know where you are going, intend to arrive there and be quite firm in your resolve. And that's for one person, Harry. It is infinitely more difficult to take another with you as you must be sufficiently strong in all three to overcome any indifference on the part of your companion. In short, you must trust the person you are Apparating to do nothing foolish for the brief period you are in transit. I believe we all understand that Tom is quite lacking in the ability to trust anyone, especially someone he fears as much as he envies."

"Are you saying," said Snape, his brow furrowing, "that you stepped out of a Side-Along Apparition?"

McGonagall was horrified. "Albus! You could have been Splinched." She took a large swallow of tea, needing a sudden dose of Calming Draught herself.

Dumbledore waved off their concerns as though such an event was an everyday occurrence. Perhaps for the headmaster it was. "Tom does not trust me, nor should it come as any surprise to you that I do not trust him. If I were successful in exchanging your freedom for my status as a hostage, Severus, knowing that the only way Tom could successfully ensnare me was to bring me with him, then it was simply a matter of being more determined, more deliberate, more focussed on where I wished to go than he was. I daresay that, in his delight at having 'captured' me, he was considerably less determined to drag me to his lair than he ought to have been."

From:

dhae_knight_1

Here: have a hook;

It was clear that the house had been beautiful, once. In some ways, Hotch supposed, it still was.

He was determined it would be again.

It's been slow going this week. I'm thinking about maybe trying to get in sme writing in the morning, before the thesis takes over my brain for the day. Maybe that would help. Worth a shot at any rate. :-)

From:

dhae_knight_1

That's... extremely creepy, somehow. And I love the last line. :-)

From:

dhae_knight_1

Ooh - that's nice. :-)

From:

snowynight

Writing's kind of blocked, because like the quote, I'm at a loose end. Still pumping out words, but hard.
I' m in need of someone with perspective who can see the whole ship instead of just the boiler room? No fandom knowledge is needed. Just an impression/thought/feeling or talking over'll be great.

Next week I'll do more research and plotting for a fic I haven't started. And keep writing.

From:

insignia

I've written about 400 words of villain profile and brainstorming for my Princess Tutu AU, and ended up with a lot to think about. I've focused so much on the good(ish) guys in this story that I kind of glossed over the bad ones. As a result, what I thought was a plot is really just half of one, like there's a whole layer of it missing under the surface. I suppose that, like the unsinkable warship Vasa (which immediately sank), it looks fancy but doesn't have room for enough ballast to stay upright. So I foresee a lot more brainstorming in my near future!

From:

insignia

I can have a look at it if you want. Feel free to PM me with your troubles!

From:

insignia

Ooh, that's nice! :)

From:

roane

So, writing is about to happen, I think. I'm feeling about a 6 about my efforts this week. RL intervened too much, and I'm writing something that's MUCH more difficult than I had anticipated. "Sublimation" might be the death of me.

I... cannot share a snippet, as I'm pretty sure it's too explicit. Literally, I can't find an interesting sentence or paragraph that isn't smutty. And therein lies my difficulty. I have never tried smut before and OMG is it DIFFICULT! Fight scenes are easier. I've been so focused on the choreography of it that I've not gotten into the mental and emotional issues at all. I'm not used to writing in layers like that.

I kinda hate it. But I like my basic idea, and I think the challenge is good for me. But JEEZ. I'm ready to dive in and start a monster case-fic just because all of that plotting and twists and turns would be EASIER.

From:

crowdog66

If it's creepy... mission accomplished! :) It is, after all, for a dark fic prompt community.

Thank you for the feedback. Hobby/Joe are an adorable couple (at least to me) and it's always a pleasure to write about them.

From:

roane

Wait! I have a snippet now that isn't smut! From "Sublimation":

It's been an unbearable three days, and John knows what he really needs is to sleep for the next twelve hours. He also knows that he should stay in the flat, make sure that Sherlock eats something, make sure he goes to bed, but John just can't.

More than seventy-two hours of nothing but Sherlock: it's enough to drive anybody round the twist. John knows he's not just anybody, that he has a greater capacity to cope with Sherlock Holmes in full-on case-solving mode than just about anybody. But the lack of sleep combined with the lack of privacy—seriously, the man barely gave him time to go to the loo without thinking aloud at him the whole time—and the constant worry that they were about to get shot, John has reached his limit.

“I'm going out,” he says, pulling his coat back on. “Eat something, for god's sake. And get some sleep.”

“John? Where are you going?” Sherlock is momentarily distracted from poking at his experiments.

“Just for a walk. I'll be back later. There's pad thai in the fridge. Eat it and go to bed. Doctor's orders.” He escapes from the pressure of 221B, of Sherlock's constant presence.

From:

roane

Eee. Is this the one with the dog? :)

From:

linaewen

This is great -- I can totally see John needing to get away like this.

From:

roane

Thanks! Of course, it devolves from there. :)

From:

linaewen

Dumbledore is quite awesome here!

From:

linaewen

Wow, that's beautifully sad!

From:

enemytosleep

♥

From:

snowynight

Thank you! I'll PM you.

From:

dhae_knight_1

Yeah. Something bad happened to Hotch (again!), but I'm not quite sure what. I think I'm going to have to go back and plot once my brain's made sense of all the theories floating around in there... XD

From:

bay_alexison

Finally managed to get through the situation I'm in for my Big Bang. The main character is less whiny now after the very slow editing, or so I hope. I'll send the revised version to Beta B in a couple days so that she can tell me if I still need to make some changes.

With all of my works I tend to need a person or two to see the whole ship. For my Big Bang I'm having two people betaing my story as this is a somewhat complicated story (POLITICS @_@ ) and will need another person besides my first beta to get a second perspective.

From:

dhae_knight_1

I don't think anyone in the world could manage to live with Sherlock. Seriously. I love him to pieces, but he'd drive me nuts in two minutes flat. And John's just pretty much shrugs and gets on with life, even though it's life on Sherlock (you know: This is your brain - this is your brain on Sherlock?), and what I like here is that it shows that even John has his coping-mechanisms, and Sherlock just doesn't *understand* coping. :-D

From:

roane

Heee. This entire story is, in fact, about John's coping mechanisms. The title was taken from a defense mechanism for a reason. :)

From:

crowdog66

This is wonderful -- I'm not even in the fandom and I could sense the tension of the dynamic between the characters. Very well written!

From:

roane

Wow, thank you! I love love love their relationship in the show because dear god the interpretative possibilities are endless. I didn't start out to write slash, and this particular piece is strictly het, but I can already tell that it's probably more pre-slash than I realized. :)