WIP challenge: day 29 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

Poll #10325

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

View Respondents

What did you do on your fic today?

View Answers

Wrote
5 (62.5%)

Edited
1 (12.5%)

Sent to beta
1 (12.5%)

Researched
3 (37.5%)

Posted
0 (0.0%)

Took the day off (deliberately)
1 (12.5%)

Took the day off (unintentionally)
2 (25.0%)

How many words did you write?

View Answers

0
0 (0.0%)

1-249
2 (28.6%)

250-499
0 (0.0%)

500-749
1 (14.3%)

750-999
2 (28.6%)

1000 or more
2 (28.6%)

& how do you feel about that, in 5 words or less?

View Answers

How do you know when you're done with a fic? How do you get yourself to stop editing or stop worrying (or simply stop writing) & post a fic?

There's still a couple more days to sign up for May's challenge! & I definitely need someone to help with check-in posts the week starting May 6 -- I'll be traveling for most of that week, so will be unable to do them. It'd be great if someone wanted to do this coming week (May 1-5) too -- please let me know if so! Many thanks.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

This whole month has been a real wash for fic, due to RL stress. I've been keeping up w/my 750 Words but it's mostly been cathartic ridiculous "the characters are going through something vaguely similar to what I'm going through" crap that will never see the light of day. I hope next month will be better.

[wintergrey]

I think just keeping moving counts for a lot. That's all I'm doing right now. :) I hope the stress eases for you.

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you!!

[wintergrey]

I could do some check ins for you. :)

I HATE when I hit a point that I COULD finish a fic. I do everything but roll around on the floor in agony because I want to post it nownownow and yet what if I could keep writing it and what if I want to add more and and and.

It's horrible. I have NO patience. And almost zero confidence. I'm ready to be done and never done all at once

[littlebutfierce]

I'm ready to be done and never done all at once

I know that feeling! I'm sorry you do too.

& thank you! Would you like to do 6-12 May or 1-5 May?

[0jack]

I can do 1-5. If you don't get someone for 6-12, let me know. :)

...one of these days, I'll remember to answer with the correct account. Removing this comm from this journal now. Oops.

[littlebutfierce]

Fantastic! Thank you very much!!

[wintergrey]

Are there standard forms for the polls or anything like that? :)

[littlebutfierce]

No, you can improvise as you will!!

[lilly_c]

Depends on the fic and fandom for me. I usually just decide where I want to stop rather than where my characters want me to stop, doesn't always work out though.

Yesterday and today has been for getting my prompts written for, for this round of prompt_in_a_box becuase I'd forgot about them. Oops.

If you still need someone for check-ins I can step in no probs :)

[littlebutfierce]

Good for you for getting the writing in! I hope it went well!

If you'd like to do May 6-12, that would be great -- thank you!

[lilly_c]

Yeah 6th-12th is fine :)

[littlebutfierce]

Fantastic, thank you!!

[insignia]

I continued sorting out "Pieces". No plotting as such, but I have some new ideas.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for the ideas -- I hope you're able to move forward w/them!

[msmcknittington]

I know I'm done with a fic when everything feels resolved and complete. Admittedly, I suffer from endless editing syndrome -- I could keep editing forever -- but there reaches a point where I know I'm being ridiculous and the likelihood of anyone else being as distressed by the "errors" I find as I would be becomes increasingly small. When I start obsessing over things like whether I should use "this" or "that" in a sentence, and not huge things, then I know I'm probably done.

On a semi-related note, does anybody know of a community like this for original fiction? That's mostly what I've been writing lately, and I like the format of this community (monthly sign-ups if you choose, friendly folks, daily check-ins) a lot more than places where you have to sign up at the beginning of the year or where there's no format at all because those always die. And I want to chatter about my writing, but I really don't think yammering on about my space opera is really appropriate here. Especially since I'm not sure why I started writing one, other than I sat down and wrote a spontaneous plot manifesto one night and it was . . . a space opera? I don't even know where it came from.

[wintergrey]

I could definitely use one of those myself. I'm not sure I have what it takes to post to it daily, though.

[msmcknittington]

Yeah, I ran a sewing marathon using daily check-ins for my friends in my journal last year and it was incredibly draining. Those daily posts were really, really difficult to manage! So "writethisorigfic" would definitely have to be a collaborative effort. I like having other people do things . . . which I can then benefit from. :D

[0jack]

LOL, I know. Me, too. I could give it a bit of a go, but I think 30 days consecutive posting is probably my limit.

[wintergrey]

And I'm in the wrong journal again. Hi, I'm Evith, and I'm EVIDENTLY CONFUSED.

[msmcknittington]

That's why my writing journal is a community! Which only I can post to. And is currently empty, because I post everything on AO3. As one does.

I think we need to find some suckers volunteers to run this origfic community so we can exploit them be very appreciative of the effort.

[0jack]

How about "ficdaily"? I like it. I bet I can drum up some volunteers. I can do it for the first month.

[msmcknittington]

I concur! I can probably make a couple posts per month, or maybe per week depending on what life throws at me, but I know I won't be able to manage much more than that with any reliability.

I can also think of some other people who would be interested in such a community, but I'm not sure if I could twist their arms to volunteer.

[0jack]

http://ficdaily.dreamwidth.org/profile

There we are. If it's not working out for me, I'm sure someone will take it over by November. :)

[msmcknittington]

Sweet! Thanks so much for setting it up. <3

[littlebutfierce]

When I start obsessing over things like whether I should use "this" or "that" in a sentence, and not huge things, then I know I'm probably done.

Heh, yeah, I know what you mean!

[bay_alexison]

The short story I mentioned I had made some last minute touches and turned it in to my beta. I then was betaing a friend's fic before I was away and I'll be finishing that up later tonight. Bleh, been having the writerly blues lately because the last couple fics I posted had lackluster responses. One of them is for a prompt fill and the person I wrote it for had reviewed all the fills posted for her except for mine, so now I'm thinking I'm a very terrible writer because my writing style probably lack emotion and it's too mechanical. URGH.

I tend to keep editing and adding until I feel I have written down everything I wanted happened when it comes to shorter fic. With longer fic I plan how I want it to end, though sometimes the ending might change last minute haha.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh no, I'm sorry your recipient didn't comment on your fill! Hopefully they just overlooked it.

Yay for turning in your story to your beta! Good luck finishing it up when it comes back.

[samecgh]

Yeah, I've been bad. I got into a new fandom and went through fic. Still am, and I picked up prompts. I might write some tonight. I also need/want to find a beta for my two big bang fics, so when I put them up I don't have major gaps in writing or bad spellings.

I'm also doing a little dance because the second one got chosen by someone for art. It wasn't even open that long and someone grabbed it.

How can I tell him I'm done? Sometimes, my brain won't provide anything more. Sometimes I tell myself, nope, this is it, stop that. No more picking on (insert character here). Doesn't always work, but I try.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for the art coming in for your fic! :D & have fun exploring your new fandom!!

[crowdog66]

I wrote and posted a 1400-word fic in the Lethe!verse, "Unexpected", and wrote two sets of writer's notes, one on gender and sexual orientation in the Lethe!verse and one about how figuring out Megabyte's orientation is driving me crazy (pansexual, maybe?).

A fic is done when my instincts tell me it's done. There's no hard-and-fast evaluative tool: it's a matter of feeling. Editing stops at what feels like a natural point. Same with the writing itself. :)

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for posting the fic! :D

[roane]

I finished chapter 4 of Pull the Stars from the Sky today! I wrote something crazy like 4,000 words. It's all kind of a blur. :) I've sent them off to beta in hopes that it doesn't require too much rewriting. :)

This is kind of a weird question for me. A fic is finished when the plot is wrapped up? And I stop editing when I'm happy with it. I don't over-edit, I don't think. In fact, my biggest problem when I finish something is that I want to SHOW EVERYONE RIGHT NOW. Fortunately, I have quick betas, or I'd be posting a lot of unbetaed stuff. ;)

[littlebutfierce]

Hahahaha, I get the "OMG must post NOWWWWWW" urge too.

Congrats on finishing chapter 4 of your fic! Sounds like it was quite an intense experience. :D

[linaewen]

I am researching, even though I really don't need to. I am beginning to realize it is a form of procrastination, since I seem to not want to actually begin writing. I'm pretty distracted with RL right now, but I have some major deadlines coming up for my writing, so I better shape up.

I have yet to finish any of my main WIPs, but for shorter things, I go on instinct as to when I am finished, as well as the fact that things have been wrapped up appropriately as far as the plot goes. However, I do tend to keep on editing long after the posting. As I find new places to post my fics, I tend to go back and re-edit them a bit (mostly for grammar and punctuation) -- more so with the long WIPs than with the short one-shots.

[linaewen]

I just wrote 500 words, yay! Take that, procrastination! It's a start, at least. ;-)

[littlebutfierce]

Woohoo!!! Yay for breaking through the procrastination! :D Good luck keeping it going!