WIP Challenge - Check In Day 7 - Friday

[the_rck]

Poll #16120

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

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Today I

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planned
0 (0.0%)

researched
0 (0.0%)

wrote
3 (100.0%)

sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

edited
2 (66.7%)

posted
0 (0.0%)

rested
0 (0.0%)

did something else
1 (33.3%)

The way I feel about that is

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Mean: 5.33 Median: 5 Std. Dev 1.25

Terrible 1		0 (0.0%)
2		0 (0.0%)
3		0 (0.0%)
4		1 (33.3%)
5		1 (33.3%)
6		0 (0.0%)
7		1 (33.3%)
8		0 (0.0%)
9		0 (0.0%)
Wonderful 10		0 (0.0%)

What's the longest thing you've ever written? What do you like/dislike about writing at that length?

The longest thing that I've ever written is still a WIP at 190000 words. I've been posting as I go which I think may have been a mistake. Then again, I might never finish without the pressure of people wanting the next chapter. I don't know. The next longest thing I've written is about 12000 words. With the WIP, I like the way the length lets me explore multiple characters and threads of plot. I can stretch out and take time to build the world and make the character development seem organic. I don't like the fact that I tend to lose track of the little details. I recently reread what I'd written in preparation for trying to finish the next chapter (which hasn't been going well), and there are a lot of little errors and things I plain forgot about that I'm not sure I can pick up again without disrupting the current narrative. When I write something short, every detail has to serve a purpose. With something longer, I can include things that don't immediately serve a purpose but that offer me scaffolding for later developments (I don't always know what I'm setting up. I'm a seat of the pants writer).

Comments

[ladygriddlebone]

The longest thing I've written is a still-unfinished wip that is currently sitting at just over 300,000 words. Probably what I like the least about writing at that length is the thought that once it's done, I have to go back and edit all of that. I started posting the story early on (over 4 years ago), not realizing at the time just how long it was going to end up being, so there are some holes in the story that need patching, and some issues with changes in my writing style over time and whatnot. I'm really not looking forward to dealing with that.

[lilly_c]

My longest fics so far were 19,700+ and 17,600+ and I liked that I could take longer to explore specific themes and also have more time with the characters. I dislike that there are times when I feel like I'm repeating myself when I read back the things I've already written and repetition is something that I get very conscious of and try to avoid but it isn't always easy.

Let Me Fade, my current WIP is around 4,274 words posted and when it's done I think it'll be more than 20,000 words but that's provisional just now because some chapters are turning out longer than others.

I got some writing done after work today and although I have a few shifts over the weekend and they're quite late in the day I'll be getting some more writing done and also posting my amnesty fills for genpeompt_bingo tomorrow.

[linaewen]

My longest thing is currently at 134,500 words, with no end in sight. I have something else I've written that might be comparable, but I don't have an exact word count for it. It's something I plan to update and post again properly, but not until I am certain I will be able to post regularly and not slack off like I have with my other WIPs.

I like length because I can take my time getting where I am going and spend time with descriptions and conversations and character development. What I dislike is missing an important detail and not realizing it until much later, and then I have to figure out how to "fix" the problem in the narrative because it's too late to go back and change what I wrote because it was so long ago.