Checkin Wednesday 30th May

[lacygrey]

Poll #10684

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

View Respondents

What have you been up to today, fic wise

View Answers

writing?
5 (38.5%)

reseach?
1 (7.7%)

editing?
1 (7.7%)

a bit of everything?
2 (15.4%)

something completely different?
4 (30.8%)

For discussion:
Have you ever had the plot change radically as you were writing a story? Has a review ever caused you to change the direction of a fic?

Comments

[the_rck]

I've definitely had stories in which what I thought was going to happen didn't. In each case, I discovered while writing that the events I'd planned required warping the characters, so I let them go and tried to find other events that made more sense.

[linaewen]

I'm not actually writing yet, but I'm feeling hopeful that I might have time in what's left of the day, so I put that as my poll choice. ;-)

I had one instance of my plot changing radically, and it was because of a review. A regular reader felt I was having the story go in a direction that was out of character in significant ways, and because we had a relationship as fellow writers, I considered what she had to say and realized she was right! It took some time to figure out how to change the direction of the plot without having to redo anything I had already written, but I was able to do that eventually and it worked out wonderfully. I am so grateful that friend was brave enough to comment in such a way, because it made for a much better story for several of the characters.

[lullabymoon]

Managed another 200 odd words yesterday. Progress!

I've never really had the plot radically change before but then I'm only relatively lately writing things that have plot and I tend to plan to death.

[i_paint_the_sky]

I've definitely had things happen that I didn't expect but those are usually the best parts, IMO.

I haven't really changed things because of a review, though a recent review on my on-going WIP made me realize something that I'd set up unknowingly which was great because I'll definitely be building on it later. So there's that but usually big changes have to occur due to comments from my friends/editors and once its past them, it's pretty much the final version.

[crowdog66]

In spite of still experiencing waves of fear and anxiety in the aftermath of yesterday's fire, I managed to write around 1600 new words and post a stand-alone Lethe!verse story, "Moonlight" -- and to be rather pleased with some of the dialogue I came up with.

Re: the discussion question... for me stories tend to grow organically and I seem to have a pretty good instinct for getting a bead on the beginning and ending and writing a path (albeit sometimes winding) from one to the other. I don't recall ever being influenced by a review to change a story's direction, although I've sometimes asked readers what they'd like to see and, if I can work it into the plot, added sections to please them.

[linaewen]

What a frightening thing to happen! I hope you are able to be in your own place in spite of the fire (or if not, then hope you get back in soon!). I imagine that kind of fear and anxiety is not something that will go away immediately, but hopefully you can feel settled in your mind again soon. Being able to write in spite of the stressful situation is great!

[crowdog66]

They let us back into the apartment building the same night, but the smell of smoke that's hanging about is really playing high holy hell with my nerves. Still, yeah... writing! Writing is good! :)