WIP check in - Sunday 26th February

[lullabymoon]

Hello all! I'll be hosting the check ins for the rest of the month.

How did your writing go today?

• I wrote
• I researched
• I edited
• I posted
• I had too much else to do
• I did something else I'll explain in the comments

Today's topic comes from fanficflamingo:



How easily do you get distracted by other plot bunnies? Do you ever start to write something then end up changing track completely?
 

Comments

[enemytosleep]

Yuujinchou Exchange (due Mar 17 - 1K word min): First draft complete. Is with betas right now, and am waiting for their edits to fine tune the fic. Current word count: 9,306

Yuujinchou Exchange Bonus Treat #1 (due Mar 17): Received beta's notes and started making tweaks and edits. Hope to finish doing that tonight. Current word count: 2,078

Yuujinchou Exchange Bonus Treat #2 (due Mar 24): I'm trying to see if I can narrow this down to a scene or two in outline form. Current word count: 0

Help_Japan (due 18 years ago - 750 word min): No new words. I promise to give this love after the Yuujinchou exchange stops eating my brain. Current word count: 3,666

Plot bunnies don't distract me from writing internet porn does RL things distract me. I'm pretty good about making notes and leaving things until later in terms of things I had ideas for.

[snowynight]

Case story bigbang (10K min.) : ~1K written. Currently approaching 5K. Cautiously optimistic.

Queer bigbang (10K min.) : I'm thinking of starting a new plot, again.

Reverse Bigbang (6K min) : Brainstorming

I 'm very easily distracted. It lands me in the current situation of changes after changes of track.

[samecgh]

I'm trying to write. I'm stuck for my fourth bad relation. I don't know whether to have Astronema adopt Justin as a brother and how to write that or whether to use another bad guy for Justin to be related to.

And yes, yes I do, constantly. Sometimes I can think them up and they'll go away after or sometimes they linger until I write them. I got a brain-blast on a Chuck/Doctor Who idea that came from a short fic I wrote a while ago last night. It may have helped that I was watching Back to the Future II and somehow the ideas came out.

[insignia]

A little more brainstorming for my Western. I'm narrowing down what kind of research I'll need to do, so I don't set out trying to learn everything there is to know about 19th century America. :D

Todays discussion topic has been a problem for me in the past, but this month I've been improving my ability to write down new ideas and leave them for later. It's part of my great plan to become productive. :D

[roane]

Well, I've managed about 700 words so far today on "Displacement". I also have a rough outline now of where it's going. However, I still don't have any idea how it actually ENDS. I'm not too worried about that, as that sort of thing usually comes to me.

I'm pretty good about making notes about new ideas and leaving them be. The time I spent trying to "be a pro" kind of beat that into me. Plus, I've found that the ideas get better if I let them be for a bit, kind of like reheating soup the next day. So far, aside from short ficlets, I've managed to keep myself to one "big" work at a time (my personal definition of big meaning anything that has an actual plotline and will likely be more than just a couple thousand words).

However, given that I have a prompt to fill and a big bang to write, I'll probably be starting something else new while I'm still working on "Displacement". Because seriously, this story is challenging the heck out of me, and it'll be nice to be able to switch to something more in my comfort zone when it gets to be too much.

[roane]

And I just laughed, because I have several great fic ideas at the moment, and what did I do yesterday? Posted 2K words of porn. :D

[littlebutfierce]

I've been struggling the past week or so -- keeping my brain in writing mode (my super-long 750 Words streak is still unbroken), but I'm not really happy with anything I've come up with lately. Rationally I know this should be fine; I've posted a crap ton (for me) of fic this year so far, & I am happy w/the exchange fic I have due next month, which still needs tweaking but has been moving along mostly fine. I want to write all the treats for this exchange, though, so hopefully letting my brain take a breather for a week or so will get me back in the swing of things.

I switch between fics a lot: partly distraction, partly giving my brain some time to subconsciously figure out what to do next in any one fic while I focus on another one. I let things sit for months & then I open the file out of curiosity & realize a fic is 99% done, & has been for ages. If I'm lucky I can then make myself finish up the last 1% & post!

[dhae_knight_1]

Well, with the mother of all tension headaches haunting me today, I didn't think I'd write. But then I did. And proceeded to freak myself out with my hinting to the terrible things that happened in the past. I love it when that happens! :-D

Anyway... I think taking a break to do something fast and easy can be a good thing. God knows I intended this angst-fest to be quick and dirty, but it doesn't want to comply! XD

Once, I began writing an original story, and to my unending surprise one of the bit characters pretty much took over. Of course, by the first plot point I hit the snag that I'm a method writer, and having your main viewpoint character having a complete breakdown... Well. I've learned that that's probably the kind of thing I need to avoid in the future...

[crowdog66]

Too much else to do: today was devoted to working on a paying project.

I get distracted fairly easily in terms of having new plot bunnies spring up on a regular basis. However, once I start to write a particular story (or a chapter of that story) I tend to be pretty focussed on the project I've chosen to devote my time to.

[linaewen]

I was determined to write today, but a last minute editing job for someone who needed their college paper done early, and the chance discovery of a new fic in a series that is in a totally different fandom from what I am writing has set me back hugely. Now bedtime approaches and I'm trying to find my way back to a place where I have my writing wits about me again. Even just 100 words would make me feel like ended the day well! :-)

The plot bunnies I get distracted by are usually ones that are for the story I'm working on but they are far in the future of the story, so really don't need to be worked on -- but they are always so appealing! Instead of just making a note of the idea as it comes to me and leaving it at that, I have to go research it, then write a snippet and then I'm distracted from the matter at hand. I excuse it by telling myself that it will help the current story flow more smoothly if I know what's going to happen in the future, but really all is does is keep me from writing the chapter at hand. (But it's still fun. I have some great future chapters coming if I can get past this one!)

Also, as it was today, other people's plot bunnies distract me into reading their stories when I should be writing my own. ;-)

[asecretchord]

I have five fics in progress so I'd have to say yes, I do get distracted, insanely so. I write scenes as they occur to me and figure out where they go later.

I wrote nearly a thousand words on my Snarry-a-Thon fic #2 and mentally mapped out most of #1 (my "official" prompt). All in all, not a bad day!