Day 29 - Check In AND Weekly Snippet/Beta-Seeking/General Chatting Post

[linaewen]

It's Friday and time for another check in!  It also seemed like a good day for a post about sharing things like snippets, requests for betas, and chatting about our fics in general.  To get the ball rolling, here's a longish but appropriate quote for the day:

"... You generally start out with some overall idea that you can see fairly clearly,
as if you were standing on a dock and looking at a ship on the ocean.
At first you can see the entire ship, but then as you begin work
you're in the boiler room and you can't see the ship anymore...
What you really want in an editor is someone who's still on the dock, who can say,
Hi, I'm looking at your ship, and it's missing a bow, the front mast is crooked,
and it looks to me as if your propellers are going to have to be fixed."

-- Michael Chrichton

Daily Check In

1.  What was today like for you?

• Writing happened!
• Research happened!
• Editing happened!
• Taking a break happened!
• Life happened -- but there's always tomorrow!

2.  Any word counts to report?

3.  On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most positive, how are you feeling about your writing efforts today -- and why did you choose that number?

Weekly Snippet/Beta/Chat:

1.  Are you blocked? Are your characters refusing to talk to you? Has your muse unexpectedly switched gears on you?  Is offline life giving you a pain?  Share with us about it and get some sympathy and encouragement!

2.  Are you excited about your story? Are the words flowing and the plot racing along? Share with us what is going right for you!

3.  If you like, why not share a snippet, a paragraph or a link to something you're working on this week?

4.  Are you in need of someone with perspective who can see the whole ship instead of just the boiler room?  Need help with editing or beta work on your writing?  Let us know and we'll see what we can do to help you out!

5.  Is there anything you think you'll do differently next week in your writing to have a greater impact on what you accomplish?  Or anything you'll keep on doing because you had a wonderfully successful week?

 

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I'm still mostly taking a break, but I am working on a drabble for a friend's prompt, heh. Also I opened up a comment-fic-in-progress I wrote the other week & I think it has potential! I am headdesking that it ended up being for my own prompt, though (I think I forgot I left it when I was looking at the fic_promptly Delicious account, ahahaha).

I feel like I'm at a bit of a loose end, right now, though. I was relieved to finish my help_japan fic, but I haven't really gotten stuck into anything else yet. I have a help_japan fic to do now, but my recipient has been really kind & said I can take as long as I want -- which is good, as I'm not really struck by lots of ideas. ^^;;

So... no snippets to post this week. & I don't need a beta at this point, ahaha.

The next few weeks are going to be pretty hectic for me, I think, so I will feel happy if I get anything done at all, waaaaah. Still, maybe having less time for fic will somehow focus me? Maybe I'll find myself obsessively thinking about fic if I suddenly have much less time to write it!

[linaewen]

Report on today:

1. Life happened, and may continue to happen, as it's been a rather interrupted sort of day. Therefore...

2. I have nothing to report.

3. I guess I'd better go with a 3, since I didn't get any writing done today, and probably won't at this point. However, it's rather a happy 3, since I'm not discouraged about the writing; it's just that Life intervened this week.

Weekly Stuff:

I'm working on several things, and in one of them I'm a bit blocked, because it involves writing a battle, and for some reason I don't want to describe it! Maybe I'll have to forgo the details for a change and just kind of skim over it... ;-) In my other writing, I have plenty of ideas and stuff to get me inspired -- I just have to sit down, concentrate and write!

I think I need to manage my time differently next week, so that I do my writing before I start my other projects; otherwise those other projects always seem to fill up the day and then there's so little time left I don't feel like starting anything in the story line! Next week will be very busy, but after that, I should have some solid blocks of time for writing, so I'm hoping to make major progress on several different story fronts.

I guess I'll share a snippet. I'm not sure if it's what I want just yet, but it's close! This is from a Lord of the Rings fic I've been working on:

Yet even as the Orc horde crossed the Limlight and headed south across the upland grasslands, they were met with an obstacle they did not expect. What was this dark forest of wind-stirred trees that blocked their path? There should have been no wood here, according to the reports of spies from Dol Goldur who had scouted the land thoroughly while plans for battle were being laid. Whence came the trees that threatened them now? The wind in the branches was loud and persistent, seeming to speak of a rising wrath and anger that gave even the Orcs pause.

The army hesitated in its march forward, ill at ease. But fear of failure and the punishment it would bring was greater than fear of the strange trees. So they pressed on...

...until it was too late to turn back.

[littlebutfierce]

Heh, I definitely do the thing where I write past things I can't deal w/at the moment ("[BIG EMOTIONAL SCENE HERE]" & whatever)! Good luck.

Your snippet is lovely! Creepy trees, eek!

[terajk]

I wrote a drabble today! (Go, me!) 7, because while I'm happy with the drabble, I wish I'd written more things.

There are so many awesome promptfests going on around Dreamwidth right now--and there are cool prompts I'd like to write things for, but I am nervous.

[littlebutfierce]

You've written quite a few for the drabblefest in my journal, right? I love seeing them roll in!

Though yeah, I get you on the nervousness re: promptfests.

[terajk]

You've written quite a few for the drabblefest in my journal, right?

Ahahaha, well, four, anyway! :D

I've never actually written drabbles before. They're challenging (how to tell this story in 100 words?), but they don't trigger my nervousness about filling prompts, since they're so short. So thank you for nudging me to write them!

[littlebutfierce]

I know, they feel quite different to me, too! Possibly b/c I don't feel like I have to do real serious canon research to write them (there's no room for that level of detail, heh). I'm glad they feel possible for other people to write as well!! \o/ Do keep going if you're inspired (& dropping prompts as well!). :)

[lola_mento]

I wrote 1300 words for my first queer_fest story and then took a break. It's still not finished, but the hardest part is done, I think. Again a 9.

Now I should finish the commentfic I started a couple of days before. Bleh, writing for canons I haven't seen in some time makes me feel insecure. And I should finish the other commentfic I started for fic_promptly.

Mostly, I'm terrible at finishing stuff.

[littlebutfierce]

Bleh, writing for canons I haven't seen in some time makes me feel insecure.

Yeah, me too. And then if I decide to get all official & re-watch/read canon, well... it takes forever. ;_;