We help the helpless (fanfic writer)

I did a prompt from

15_minute_fic for my 750 words today. It seems to be the beginning of a fic that could be called... plotty? Which is just plain weird for me; for the most part I do fluffy or sappy emo character pieces or missing scenes. I'm a little intimidated by the idea of actual plot! But intrigued. We'll see what happens w/it.

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Ooh! Congratulations on possible plottiness! Don't be intimidated, they can be lots of fun too.

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Hee, thank you! I think especially b/c of the recent discussion about research, all I can think about is how much research this fic might need to be done right. ;_; (& I know in comparison to what some of the folks are doing in this comm, it's probably not even that much research at all, hahahaha...)

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jagnikjen

Great news on a plot. When I find them I celebrate cuz they're few and far between for me. ;p

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Thank you! & yeah... I hear you on the rarity of actual plots!

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Plot can be scary, but if you have one, run with it, is my motto.

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Yeah... I probably should? With the magic power (as far as mental permission to write a crappy first draft) of 750 Words I might keep trying w/it. Or... I might run & hide.

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I just keep telling myself, "It doesn't have to be GOOD, it just has to be 750 words long." (I also give myself permission to talk to myself while I write: "Oh, that's no good, let's try rephrasing," and "What exactly AM I trying to do here?" are popular.)

*cheers you on if you want cheering*

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A very belated thank you for the cheering! :)

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adalger

I have a snippet of a larger WIP for which I'm going to need, very soon, a beta for treatment of homosexual issues. (AtLA fandom, familiarity helpful but probably not essential.) It's half-written on paper; commitment from a beta would probably prod me to get it typed and edited and posted later tonight.

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OMG a canon I know!!! (I'm usually useless in these situations.) How long is the WIP? I might be able to beta if it's not huuuuuge.

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adalger

By the time I finish writing the part I really need eyes on, it's going to be up to around 3500 words.

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That should be fine!

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jagnikjen

Well, let's see...

I posted a fic today. (snippet/excerpt to follow)

And I tried working on a new fic, but am struggling a bit with the premise. I know where I want it to end up, but I just can't seem to figure out how to get the ball rolling. Grr...

But tonight hubby and son won't be home till later and I'm skipping my nightly walk (maybe) so I can just go home and see if I can wrangle something into plausibility.

From Counting on Arthur, a Harry Potter fic:

Her [Molly] eyes lit upon Ron, who lay sprawled on one end of the sofa watching Hermione from under his half-mast lids. Hermione sat curled up at the other, her nose in a rather large tome, as usual, and seemingly oblivious to Ron's scrutiny.

Molly knew better. She shook her head and tutted to herself. Ron had not followed in his brothers' footsteps in regards to girls, and she couldn’t find it within herself to mind. By the end of Hermione’s stay with them between their first and second year at Hogwarts, Molly had had a sneaking suspicion she was looking at one of her future daughters-in-law. She was even more certain now. But she never pushed. If it was meant to be, it would be, and all in due course. She was a great believer in destiny. She was tempted to nudge now though. Watching the two of them struggle with their feelings for each other, each afraid of revealing them, was almost painful. Molly sighed and scanned the rest of the room.

Two somebodys were noticeably absent. She circled the staircase once more to ensure she hadn't missed them. She hadn't. “Where on earth have Ginny and Harry wandered off to?”

“I think they took the rubbish out, Mum,” offered Ron, followed by a soft, “Ouch.”

Molly looked back at Ron, who now rubbed the length of his thigh and was giving Hermione a confused look. Hermione didn’t seem to have moved, she just turned a page. Molly’s mother’s intuition now kicked into high gear.

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Oh, I love that snippet!

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Ahahaha, lots of moments ahead where Molly wants to smack some sense into both Ron & Hermione ahead, I predict!!

Good luck w/the premise of the new fic! Could you maybe write the v. last scene of the fic & see if that gives you some ideas on how to work backwards from there?

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curuchamion

So after I posted yesterday about my very little bit of progress, I went shopping. I didn't get much writing done, but I did get to sit down for long enough that my two male protagonists - currently in college (the story spans from when they meet in college during the tail end of the Vietnam War to when they're fifty-odd years old and sharing an old Victorian house with a gaggle of nieces and nephews over the summer, present-day; I'm writing both halves at once) - decided to drive cross-country nonstop in two days because the mom of one of them was dying. They wind up bonding somewhat on the trip, as you do, plus I got to write a really fantastic description of a summer day in Los Angeles, and this morning I even managed to write the scene where one of them comes out as asexual to the other. (The other guy hasn't reciprocated or even reacted yet, but he will. He's just slow. *pokes guy #2 affectionately*)

I keep shying away from writing any "explicit" cuddling scenes, though. *sigh* (Explicit is in quotation marks because, well, in an asexual romance of this sort there isn't going to be anything you'd call smut... but I still need some scenes with an intimate tone, and trying to write those embarrasses the heck out of me. I always feel like a voyeur with a camera. O_O)

Oh, I also wrote out something resembling a plot outline - my plot keeps "putting down roots (into the past) and throwing out unexpected branches", to quote a much better writer than myself - and discovered that these guys' relationship timeline may be even more complicated than I thought. Mort (guy #2, who's still coming to terms with his asexuality in most of what I've written yet) keeps switching careers on me; he's been an engineering major, a soldier ('Nam), an ex-soldier with PTSD, a cop, a retired cop on disability, and now apparently he had a construction-worker phase as well! O_O At least James (his boyfriend) is reliably laid-back: he's a freelance artist, writer, typist, ~~beta reader~~ proofreader, and whatever else he can turn his hand to without making a long-term commitment. (Mort seems to be his only long-term commitment. LOL)

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jagnikjen

Sounds like some decent progress. Keep it up. :)

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Sounds like you are surging ahead w/the bones of the story!! Yay for making all these discoveries--sounds like you'll have a full plate w/the fic, but also like you're having fun, which is awesome.

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I'm still going strong! On the wrong story, but hey, it's keeping me enthusiastic about the 'verse, so I'm not complaining!

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jagnikjen

Writing is writing. And enthusiasm is good.

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Yay!! I agree w/

jagnikjen -- writing is writing! And especially brilliant if it's in the same 'verse, so maybe you will get to work on the goal story sometime soon too!

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I've written four drabbles today, so 400 words so far. Since I don't normally get my fic on until after ten or so, I'd say I'm doing pretty good. I'm trolling through iTunes looking at song titles for inspiration at the moment and have come to the conclusion that my music selection is very varied. Also that bands I don't want to admit ever having listened to have some good song titles XP

I'm hoping to have ten drabbles done and ready to post on Monday, and with a total of seven so far, I'm well on my way. Though the weekend's looking pretty busy. First BBQ parties of the season! Woohoo! I hope it doesn't snow.

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Congrats on the drabbles! I know sometimes, hitting on the perfect 100 words is harder than writing pages of plot-heavy fic.

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Thanks. Yeah, drabbles can be hard. All that word tweaking and shuffling around... But they're fun challenges.

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Sweet! Congratulations! You're well on your way towards your goal for Monday. Good luck fitting the other drabbles in around the parties. :)

(& hahahaha, song lyrics & titles. The flamingo gets it right once again.)

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I'm shooting a death glare at the flamingo. It can't be right all the time. But songs can make such excellent prompts. For a couple, I even managed to work in a couple images and themes from the songs, so that's got to count for something. :D

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jagnikjen

I love the challenge of drabbles. Great job on writing four.

LOL, on song titles: Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band anyone. ;) But you're right, they can be really awesome prompts.

Go you!

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They're a lot of fun!

Ugh, I was scrolling through iTunes going, "Dashboard Confessional? Darryl's Grocery Bag? Why, self? Why???"

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chibifukurou

I didn't write for the second day in a row, but I did keep busy with RL. Hopefully the weekend will go better.

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I wish you much luck in finding more time to write on the weekend!

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Yeah, sometimes that happens. Good luck carving out some writing time this weekend!

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jagnikjen

That's not always a bad thing, but I hope you get some writing time this weekend.

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soc_puppet

Nothing written today and, unexpectedly, probably little to nothing will be written tomorrow :/ Not only is it Mother's Day Weekend and I work at a flower shop (we're going to be so swamped, I had to take a day off from my other job - the one I usually get writing done at - to help out), but I've got a convention staff meeting to attend. While we do have breaks at that, I'll probably end up talking with everyone else instead. Also, I need to get up early and make chocolate covered strawberries. (Long story.)

Still, hope springs a turtle, I guess; it's possible I could get some writing done tomorrow. If so, I'll likely reach the end of Backstory/Exposition time, call it the end of the first part of the meme fill (sob sob why is it "parts" now sob) and try and slap it up on the 'net. Because I'm apparently less patient than I like to think ~~and nothing at all to do with the other filler who is on the prompt really I swear I have no black feelings going here at all~~.

Basically, I need more hours in a day :( Maybe I can juggle my schedules a little bit, see if I can't go for that "six twenty-eight-hour days week" thing instead.

Snippets maybe later. For now, sleep.

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Oh goodness, it sounds like you're definitely going to struggle to find some writing time in the next few days! I'm sorry about that. I hope you're able to get some writing in sometime soon, or at least if not, your busy period doesn't leave you too wrung-out to write when you do have the time!

(& hahaha, the complicated feelings around multiple fills for a prompt, I hear you...)

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jagnikjen

Sometimes a break can be helpful. Your stories are still there in your mind, working within your subconscious, percolating, if you will. Plus, meeting new people and having various conversations may spark ideas for future stories or plots or dialogue, etc.

Hang in there.

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bay_alexison

I didn't get any writing today, but I was about to get going with an outline for my second help_japan fic after watching a couple episodes of the series I'm writing to check up on some canon stuff. Able to think more of the beginning and also already got an idea how I'll end the story. Now I need to think of how to deal with the middle x_x I have some ideas written in my notebook so that I won't forget, but it's a matter of when and how I'll use those ideas.

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Yay for the outline! & productive canon-refreshing!! Good luck figuring out the middle of the story. :)

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jagnikjen

Getting refreshed with canon is a good thing. And getting ideas written down is definitely progress. :)

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linaewen

Okay, so I haven't checked in all week, in spite of the amazing flamingos that so accurately portray the truth of writing, hehe! I think I'll go back and comment (eventually) even if it doesn't involve an actual writing update, because I love those flamingos! What I like about the check in posts in this community is that there are other things to talk about concerning the whole writing process, other than just reporting word counts! And that's encouraging, especially when the only fic-related thing I've done all week is wonder if I'll ever get back into it. At least it's due to Real Life and not due to writer's block or something like that. ;-)

I've had a busy week with guests visiting and now getting ready for traveling. So nothing related to writing has happened, except the gathering of my notes into as small a space as possible -- since I plan on taking everything with me on my trip. There actually may be some good writing opportunities once I get away from my regular place, so I'm pinning all my writing hopes for next week on that.

Actually, if things go well today, I think I'll plan on at least posting some finished chapters. That way I won't feel like the entire week was for naught!

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