March WIP challenge: day 1 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

Yay, it's time for another WIP challenge! New month, new possibilities, new fic! How's it started off for you so far?

Poll #9721

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

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How are you feeling about your fic as we roll into a new month?

View Answers

Full of optimism!
6 (33.3%)

Cautiously hopeful
7 (38.9%)

Somewhere in the middle
4 (22.2%)

Nervous
1 (5.6%)

Full of dread
0 (0.0%)

& what have you done today?

View Answers

Wrote
10 (58.8%)

Edited
4 (23.5%)

Sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

Researched
4 (23.5%)

Posted
2 (11.8%)

Took a break
2 (11.8%)

Five words or less about your goal fic(s)?

View Answers

Tell us about the fic(s) you'll be working on this month. What excites you about them? What's going to be tough? What made you pick the fic(s) that you did?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I need to finish my main fic for the Book of Friends exchange. That's mostly done, actually -- I just need to let the final (?) draft sit for a couple of days so I can look at it one more time with a clear head. Also I need a title, of course. -_-;;;

I want to write lots of treats for this exchange. I have a bunch of snippets that could potentially turn into fics -- I just need to work on them. I'm finding it hard at the moment. Last month I felt like I was on fire creatively, & this month I am dragging myself along (soooooo glad I managed to write the bulk of my main fic while I was still in the zone). I'm hoping I can manage to finish even just a ficlet or two for treats that I like.

I picked these fics because the exchange fics are due this month, natch. XD

[insignia]

I have to ask so I can stop being ignorant: What exactly is a "treat" in this context? Is it just writing something besides your assignment, or does it mean something specific?

"this month I am dragging myself along"
Seems a bit early to say how the month is going :D

[enemytosleep]

Good luck finding your motivation! Hopefully I can get my beta notes back soon so I can whip my monster fic into shape soon! I'm itching to pass it in. XD

[bay_alexison]

Going to a doctor's appointment in a few minutes, but I'll get back to editing Chapter 5 of my Big Bang once I come back. I did email the rough draft of my whole fic to the mod, so I'm waiting for my assigned posting date.

I'm having a lot of mixed feelings over my Big Bang. Excited that most likely sometime this month I'll finally finish editing and get to post the story, but I'm dreading over how much I'll have to edit and if I'll be able to get through polishing it before my assigned posting date. I'm more optimistic over getting it posted, though!

Five words about my goal fic: POLITICS AND ROMANCE, TIS HARD! (I say that too many times now, lol).

[littlebutfierce]

Aw, good luck w/finishing up your big bang! That'll be super exciting!!

[enemytosleep]

I've had all sorts of people demand a later posting date with their final draft submissions, but as you turned yours in on time and were willing to post whenever: do you need more than one week for editing? You've always worked hard and participated well each round, so I'm happy to accommodate you.

[lilly_c]

No fic today but I've finished a new blog post for SIAD on my word press account and I'm still editing it. Want to get that up in the next couple of hours.

My casestory fic. Exciting is that it's a fandom that I can very easily fall back into. Tough is making sure I don't give away too many clues and because writing cases aren't a strong point of mine.
For this it is the lure of KI fandom, even though I'm own :p and Jack/Danielle are difficult to resist so otp.

My prompt_in_a_box fics. Waiting for the new round to open so I can pick my 3 prompts. Exciting is the not knowing what prompts I'll get (they're anonymous till the mod emails you). Tough is deciding what fandom(s) to work with once I have my prompts. I think this months round is lyrics prompts, will find out later on tonight.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for writing in whatever form!

I don't think I could write cases at all, so I am impressed w/people who can. :D

[enemytosleep]

Cssefics are tough. I feel like I either foreshadow WAY too much, or I leave too much a mystery that it's not engaging enough (good thing I have a good beta?).

[dhae_knight_1]

Well... considering I got so inspired I wrote more than 2,600 words today and finished one of the fic I just yesterday said I'd work on this month... I'd say it's going pretty well! :-D

If you'd like to read it, it's here. Criminal Minds. Last two lines or so is pre-slash, the rest is heavy, heavy angst. Seriously. I break people in this one. I kill cats, for crying out loud!

I'd love to hear what people think about it. It's very much a departure from my normal happy fic.

[littlebutfierce]

Wow, that is fantastic!! I hope the rest of the month goes as well for you.

[graychalk]

I'm going through one of those phases where I feel like I'm being jerked all over the place by my writing muse. ;_; I'm not sure how it all came about, really.

There's still that WIP of doom that I'm working on revising even though I have very little motivation to do so - but it's one of those things I feel like I need to buckle down and just do something about, so. :\ I also have a small bunny that morphed into something rather large chewing away in my brain, so I've been on a researching frenzy. On top of that, there's another bunny that hopped in a few days ago for a short oneshot I'm hoping will be simple to write, but I know simple is hardly ever the case for me, especially when it sounds simple. Then I also want to do artfics as I've found myself really enjoying it due to the "no pressure, all fun" factor.

So all in all, it feels like I'm doomed but I'm hoping that something in there gets done. :P

[littlebutfierce]

Ohhhhh mean muse! :( I'm sorry. I hope you find your feet soon. Hopefully doing the artfics will help -- like you said, no pressure, all fun.

[crowdog66]

This month I'll be working (hopefully) on chapters of four Garak/Bashir WIP fics: "Ovum" (mpreg), "Solstice and Equinox" (courtship), "Visitations" (dom/sub) and "When the Farsei Blooms" (War and Peace-length epic). I'll also tackle a DCU/L.E.G.I.O.N. stand-alone fic for the dark-fest community, title and length undetermined.

"Ovum"'s summary pretty much says it all: A response to the DS9 Comment Ficathon prompt: "The thing about Cardassian biology is that like lizards, they have retractable penises. And when a Cardassian's penis retracts, he lays eggs from that place... Garak lays Bashir's eggbabies." So far I've received several compliments for not writing your standard mpreg fic and for handling the trope in an inventive way, and I'm enjoying the mix of drama and humour in the piece. I haven't decided yet whether or not an of the eggs will be viable or come to term, so I look forward to figuring that out sometime this month.

"Solstice and Equinox" is a grand, sweeping story that deals not only with Bashir's decision (and efforts) to win Garak in a traditional Cardassian manner, but also with the complex web of relationships aboard Deep Space Nine. It involves a deep exploration of one of my versions of Cardassian culture, and I always find such challenges exhilarating. What's going to be tough is writing the way that Bashir keeps Garak in the dark while he's preparing to spring the proposal, because while I'm sure he manages to do it, I'm still figuring out exactly how.

"Visitations" is pretty much pure smut, but there's something to be said for that kind of story, especially when it involves one of the characters being taken to the limit of their personal comfort zone. The dance of power between Bashir and Garak in this story is very delicate and while I look forward to exploring it, I'm also nervous about pulling it off.

"When the Farsei Blooms" is at 143,000+ words, and I'm moving into a quieter period in the narrative as Garak and Bashir proceed north to the Temple, which houses the transmitter that's their only hope of getting home again. I enjoy reflective passages and the richness of everything I've built up so far will add weight to them, but they'll require a sure touch that I hope I can pull off.

As for the DCU/L.E.G.I.O.N. story... Lobo (the early version) is always fun to write, and this tale will explore his descent toward madness after Vril Dox strips him of his cloning ability. It will be a tense little piece about honour, obligation and hatred, which may or may not have a sexual subtext. I look forward to seeing how it plays out, since I'll be flying into it almost blind and just letting the characters tell me their story. This also, of course, makes me very nervous. :)

I picked these fics because my readers have been demanding continuations (in the case of the Garak/Bashir stories), and because the DCU/L.E.G.I.O.N. story is due by the end of March.

[littlebutfierce]

Good luck w/them all! Having readers clamoring for more is a great position to be in. :D

[lacygrey]

I edited today, or thats how I used he half hour or so I found. Sometimes I feel like I'm being too hard on the characters and writing much more angst (of the relationship misunderstanding kind) than these poor folk deserve. I think I going to have to write a happy ending.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh no, I say torment the characters as much as you need to in order to tell the story you need to tell!! & if you end up pulling a happy ending off, then even better after all the angst. ;)

[sperrywink]

I got an extension for a Reverse Big Bang, so I will be cramming on that this weekend and meeting the deadline on Wednesday will be a challenge. But I am adamant that I finish.

After I finish that, WIP City!! I need to pick one to focus on and just write, dammit.

And if that isn't enough, I might do a Teen Wolf monthly challenge, just because that is my new passion.

I am most excited to finish this RBB though. It's been hogging all my writing time for months, it seems.

[littlebutfierce]

Woooo, good luck finishing up your RBB! Go go go!!!

After that have fun deciding what to work on next!

[sylvaine]

I wrote today! Granted, only about 200 words or so, but given that I haven't written at all in far too long... yay!

I need to start - and preferably finish - my queerbigbang fic (I've only written somewhere around 300 words so far, so I've got some ways to go!). Plus, I want to finish the 5 or so oneshots that are hanging around on my harddrive half-written because I got stuck on a scene or the dialogue (or, worse, how to END the dialogue) or whatever. At the moment I'm more excited about the latter than the former... I need to do something about that. Figure out the plot of my queerbb fic, for one, or rather,figure out how to make the plot match up with the character's motivations and make their reactions make sense to who they are.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for those words!!! Good luck keeping it all going -- hopefully now that you've broken the streak of not-writing, it will get easier from here!

[lullabymoon]

491 words on my big bang which I am ridiculously pleased with as it's broken my two and a half week spell of no words at all.

This month I'll mainly be working on the big bang because it's due at the end of the month. At the moment, nothing is really exciting me about it as all I can see is how much work needs to be done. Tonight shows though that I know exactly what needs to be done so if I can sit down and focus, it should be ok.

The hardest part is motivation. There is no fandom for this book series at all and at this moment, my fic is still unclaimed by an artist. I am planning on doing a pimping post in the next week or two to try and get some excitement for both me and hopefully an artist, but it's thinking about it which is difficult, especially since I'm trying to focus in the writing (and tbh, the source material is not exactly brilliant).

[insignia]

Huzzah for getting some words down! I hope you can find your motivation :)

[enemytosleep]

Yuujinchou Exchange (due Mar 17): First draft complete. I got the first batch of notes back, the other will hopefully come soon. For the moment I'm letting it sit as I'd like to edit it only once with both sets of notes side-by-side. Current word count: 9,306

Yuujinchou Exchange Bonus Treat #2 (due Mar 24): No new words. Starting researching and collecting notes. 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. O.o Current word count: 3,666

I'm a bit consumed with fmabigbangat the moment, so I don't know how much writing time I'll have as I need to organize the posting schedule and a pinch hit round. I may not do check in posts either during this time (my poor inbox right now... T_T).

[littlebutfierce]

Heh, organizing fannish things can eat up so much energy. I mean, it's good! But yes, there are only so many hours in the day. :/ Good luck editing your Book of Friends fic when you get the 2nd beta comments back!

[ty_writes]

Working On:
Love bingo challenge. I need to write 4 more stories for a blackout.

Time Traveler Big Bang:
I have the outline, and half the story written but the muse, she seems dead. Maybe I can resuscitate her.

I have a series that I have started and a few oneshots already written. I want to maybe write another 2 or more.

A story I've been working on for the past 3 years. I'm still not happy with it.

[enemytosleep]

I hope you can make some good headway on at least a few of your open projects!

[insignia]

This month, my goal is to draft a total of 10,000 words for my three favourite WIPs. The titles are subject to change, but here's a run-through:

1. The Lohengrin Revolver (Princess Tutu, Western AU) - My pet project. I love the idea to itty-bitty pieces, and hope I can do it justice. Besides changing the setting from a German ballet class to the Old West, I've done some mix-n-match with characters' roles and relationships, while still trying to keep the basic personalities intact. I'm also packing it full of references to canon events and dialogue, even though things happen in a different way. It's challenging, but exciting!
Today's progress: Looked over the character profiles, and made a minor breakthrough regarding an OC's feelings.

2. Pieces (Yu-Gi-Oh!, AU) - An AU that's hard to define, since it's basically the same setting as in canon... except things are different. Yeah. Hopefully I can think of a good summary when I've sorted out the plot a bit more :D It looks like it'll be kind of huge, but I'm not sure yet whether it's one long story or a series.
Today's progress: Brainstorming about history, anti-villain motives and the functions of a magical item.

3. One of a Hundred (Yu-Gi-Oh!, pre-manga) - The life and times of the Thief King and a lot of dead people. Set before the Memory World arc in the manga. Originally meant as just a character profile, but it became a story in my head the moment I wrote down the first sentence. I have high hopes for this, but it's emotionally complicated.
Today's progress: Plotting.

[sylvaine]

Woo! Good luck with your writing goals! I for one am definitely looking forward to your Yu-Gi-Oh fic. :D

[sharpiefan]

I posted the final chapter and penultimate part of the multi-part thing I wanted to finish (the final part is by way of a "Ten Years On..." epilogue). Haven't really looked the other over yet, though I have a second WIP on my hard-drive that I can splice into it, with a bit of work to join the two and finish it off.

It's looking good from here!

[littlebutfierce]

Yay!! That's fantastic -- congratulations on making such a strong start!

[linaewen]

After a week of immersing myself in research and outline tweaking, I'm full of optimism! I just have to overcome my propensity to goof around instead of opening the word processor and beginning the writing.

I didn't actually write yet today, but I'm about to turn off my internet and get down to it! So I'm thinking positively that something will come of it and count as writing. ;-)

As usual, I have several goals for the month, but the one I'm concentrating on now is a fic in the LotR fandom that I started writing some 9 years ago. I'm getting close to 50 chapters now, and was pretty regular about writing it until the last couple of years. Lately I've only been managing about a chapter per year, so I've really slowed down. :-( But I'm excited to get back into it, because it's a fascinating story to write, if I do say so myself! It's a bit tough because it involves a lot of characters and lots of things going on in different places at the same time -- which is one reason why research and outlines are absolutely essential. But I'm at an exciting part of the story, and I really want to tell it! One reason I have chosen to concentrate on this one is that it's been neglected for too long -- and also because I have a couple of patient readers who are starting to get irritable. ;-) They want the next chapter NOW!

[littlebutfierce]

Time researching & outlining is time well-spent, I say... as long as it then leads to actual writing, which I know you're focusing on. :D Did you get any words done in the end?

Also, that's fantastic that you have readers who want more chapters of your fic!!

[snowynight]

This month's goal fic:
casestory_bigbang (min.: 10K): Currently at 8K. If I keep on the progress, it'll be finished in 2 days. Then there's no-fun editing time.

queer_bigbang (min.: 10K): I keep changing my idea. This mean I have either 5K or zero for word count.

reverse big bang (min.: 6K): I'm still waiting for my artist's reply. Still brainstorming.

[littlebutfierce]

Wow, that's a lot of stuff to work on! Sounds fun. Good luck with it. :D

[roane]

Whoa. I wrote 1500 words today on "Displacement", and posted a new chapter. :)

This month, I have the Time Travel big bang to work on, and my auction fic for fandom_helps. I have a pretty solid hold on the first one, not so much on the second. And there's all this porn that I'm apparently being compelled by my brain to write...

[littlebutfierce]

Yaaaaaay for all those words! & especially leading to a new chapter! :D Good luck w/all the next things to work on.

[terabient]

I wrote...maybe 150~200 words today for one of 3 bloodyvalentine fics that are due at the end of the month. I haven't done an actual wordcount - I write all my first drafts on paper. Old habits die hard. ^^; And I did a little editing/research.

Not a particularly productive day, but I'm just aiming for getting SOMETHING done every day, at the moment. Hopefully keeping a slow but constant pace will eventually lead to more productive writing sessions. :)

[littlebutfierce]

Getting something done every day can be really helpful -- I agree! So yay for all those words!!

[riceishere]

Late to the check-in but better late than never?

Currently working on 2 fics: one is a Wrinkle In Time fanfic w/c is a gift for a friend whose b-day is on April and the other is a random PWP for the book City of Thieves that had been sitting in my drive for months.

I'm all pumped up for my Wrinkle In Time fanfic because there'll be alternate universes! and evil versions of characters! and college-level Meg coping with growing up! But I'm also worried about making the science babble work and why-alternate-universes-why.For now I've spent the first day just outlining and skimming through the book again, which I guess is something even if I hadn't written much of it.

Now the PWP I pretty much know how it ends in my head but I'm having trouble with the middle bits and the 'choreography' of everything.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh, giftfics are fun! Good luck with it.

& oh my, the Wrinkle in Time stuff sounds potentially really rewarding, but yes, I would feel a bit flummoxed about writing the science too. ^^;;; Good luck w/the research & working it out!

(& ha, choreography of PWPs is something I find challenging too...)