Check in Day 5!

[charamei]

It's that time again! How's everyone doing?

Poll #6517 WIP check-in 5th April 2011

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

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How are you doing on your chosen fic(s) for the month so far?

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On track for my goals
5 (45.5%)

Ahead of schedule
1 (9.1%)

Behind schedule
1 (9.1%)

Too early to tell!
4 (36.4%)

And what did you do today, fic-wise?

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Write
9 (75.0%)

Research
5 (41.7%)

Edit
4 (33.3%)

Procrastinate
4 (33.3%)

Send to beta
0 (0.0%)

Post the finished fic
1 (8.3%)

Something else I will clarify in comments
1 (8.3%)

If you wrote any words today, how many did you write?

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1-249
1 (11.1%)

250-499
3 (33.3%)

500-749
2 (22.2%)

750-999
1 (11.1%)

1000 or more
2 (22.2%)

In three words or less, how are you feeling about the fic(s) right now?

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Comments

[charamei]

Getting there! To be honest, I could probably finish this scene (and the fic oh my god oh my god) tonight... I'll take a break, and come back to it before bedtime.

[littlebutfierce]

Oooooh so close!! Good luck!

[littlebutfierce]

Well, more words. I may have written myself to a little bit of progress--that is, I wrote enough rubbish to get my brain going & I may have actually discovered a bit more of the story I'm trying to tell while doing so. I don't mind pruning the rubbish out as long as I have the good bits, so that's all right. Hm.

[charamei]

It's all good!

(Well, except the bad bits. But if they lead to good bits, they're still worth something too!)

[lacygrey]

I finally posted a fic tonight that's been a WIP haunting me for nearly a year.

Tea for Three was always troublesome because it has het and an unusual pairing and some bad blood between main characters. I was always a bit trepidacious about reception, and about getting myself into cultural or fandom hot water. I first wrote it when I was trying to get my archive word count up for Blind Go last year but held it back for all these reasons and rewrote it way too many times. My whole view of one of the characters evolved over this time, which rather complicated the task.

As a result, my remix fic hasn't budged much today but I did a bit of editing - its going to need a lot more before posting ^_~

[charamei]

Whoo! That gives me hope ;) And I expect it feels fantastic, too.

My whole view of one of the characters evolved over this time, which rather complicated the task.

Oh, tell me about it...

[raletha]

That must have felt good, to get a story like that done and posted. I hope it gets a good reception. Congrats on finishing such a challenging fic!

[dbskyler]

Congratulations on posting your no-longer-a-WIP!!! That gives me hope for my WIP . . . which I am not working on at the moment, but do eventually want to finish (and post).

[emothy]

I'm not working on the WIP Challenge, but I couldn't pass up the (rare XD) opportunity to be able to say "I wrote a ficlet today!" 759 words :D

I did consider trying a second one but life got in the way. Perhaps another day!

[charamei]

Awesome!

Tomorrow is another day, right? ;)

[littlebutfierce]

AND YOU WROTE THE FICLET FOR MEEEEEEE which makes it even more exciting. For me, anyway. ;)

[lacerta]

650 words of not much more than an outline of a scene, but okay, it's always easier to get back and edit when there's something there to edit in the first place. I'm also feeling much more secure in the characterization of one of the guys. That was bugging me a lot when I started, so... yay, I guess?

[raletha]

I always write my dialogue heavy scenes this way. It works really well, I think! Yay for 650 words.

[charamei]

Very true, it is! And 650 words is pretty respectable anyway :)

[terajk]

Remix has a rough draft! Who wants cookies? :D

Also, listened to the director's commentary of canon for another fic. I may do a proper canon review tomorrow.

[raletha]

Congrats! :D

[charamei]

Whoooo rough draft!

[lacerta]

That's great! Congratulations :)

[raletha]

I ended up losing net words today. I had a horrible scene transition where I'd just starting blathering about boring things, details, and actions that contributed nothing and stalled the narrative momentum. I got over my sentimentality, stopped futzing with it trying to make it relevant, and trashed the lot.

Wrote a few new words in a different scene, but still need to glue a couple scenes together in a way that is not boring. Also wrote some expository prose for a new story. Needs a complete rewrite, but I nabbed a few ideas before I forgot them.

[charamei]

Aww, it's horrible when that happens! But it sounds like you've done the right thing and are hopefully on track to put it right :)

[lacerta]

I'm always reluctant to delete parts because I feel like I've put so much work in and maybe, if I just could tweek it a little more here and there and there too... It's a good thing being able to realize and accept that something just won't work out.

[dbskyler]

Didn't do anything on the fic today, but I do have a DVD with my recipient's favorite episode on the way from Netflix.

I can't believe how productive everyone else has been! Go comm!

[charamei]

Peer pressure really does work :p

[charamei]

Nice going!

[snowynight]

I decide to spend today reviewing canon and outline. But outline is hard. My last fic kind of get out of control. Any suggestion/advice/experience?

[charamei]

Hmm. I hate outlining too, and I usually find it's easier to get a good outline when I've already written a decent amount of the plot (I don't think I had a decent outline for First Steps until I was partway through Chapter 2. It's only four chapters long).

Try signposting rather than actually outlining? At its most basic, a long plot breaks down into four or five main events:

1. Call to Adventure
2. Something exciting
3. Mid-act climax (optional)
4. Something exciting
5. Climax

If you know roughly what happens at each of those points, you can often pants the rest of the plot, and it gives you something to aim towards when things start to get out of hand.

See also: Jim Butcher on The Great Swampy Middle :)

[pebblerocker]

I did... well, you could call it researching, immersing myself in canon. But since canon is a computer game, you could also say that I spent all my writing time playing games instead! Still, I now have an idea of what I need to research next...