Check-in post, day 14

[lola_mento]

We're almost halfway through this month now. How are things going so far? Making any significant progress? Any significant panicking? Any deadlines suddenly creeping in on you, not that it happened to me or anything?

Today's discussion theme is Titles Hard part or hardest part of the story? Where do you get them? And does anyone else ever start with the title, or is it just me?

Comments

[anyssia]

Hi! ^^

I'm new to this community, so first, a short presentation: I'm 25 years old (female ;p) living in France. I began writing fanfictions several years ago, but more seriously (and in English, as opposed to French) about 3 years ago.

I don't really follow new fandoms. I don't have a TV, don't watch movies nor animes and I don't want to involve myself in a new one, because I get fairly obsessed and it takes a lot of my time :D

That said, I'm still a Final Fantasy VII fan (the Compilation), along with Kingdom Hearts, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, The Sentinel, Stargate (SG1 and SGA) and Harry Potter. I also dabble with The Magnificent Seven, Supernatural (since the beginning of 2011), Good Omens, Due South and some others, but that's mostly as far as reading fics goes, not actually writing.

Enough about me ^^
About what I'm currently writing: I have a FFVII multi-chaptered fic in progress, but I can't seem to find the motivation to get back at it.
So I turned to the ffvii_kink_meme community, to try to get an idea or something, and began writing a PWP, just to try and get used to write again. Of course, what should have been a short story is already 4'000 words long and I began writing the actual sex part about 500 words ago ^^;;

I don't want to set myself a goal or challenge, I don't seem to do well with those (no more Nanowrimo. last year almost rendered me sick of writing T.T). But I'm hoping that I'll manage to write a bit every week, if only so I have something to report here :D

As for titles, I seem to have developed a pattern:

Usually, the first thing I had in mind when I decided to write a story, was the title. Most of the time, they were ridiculously easy to find. But I realized a couple of days ago that, if I began a fic with the title already in my head, it means that I wrote an outline too, afterward, and most of the time I never finish those fics -_-"

The last one I began, the PWP (which should have been a short text è_é!) has no title yet, no outline besides the basic idea of what they're doing. I'm writing it all as it comes and it seems to work particularly well O.O I surprised myself with interesting ideas and I'm thinking that the next one won't be outlined either, if it stays true :p

[glitteryv]

Yays for getting back to writing! I totally hear you on getting tired of writing. Due to the amount of fics I've got to write and post (for auction wins and birthdayfics), I've made the decision to not do any more challenges (regardless of length) for the remainder of the year (well, except the due South Seekrit Santa 'cause nothing would make me miss *that* one!).

[littlebutfierce]

I managed to get some editing done on my Natsume Yuujinchou OT3 fic (er, the latest one, I mean) during the writing session tonight. But surprise!plot is causing some consternation. Sappy scenes about feeeeeelings I can do, but actual plot throws me for a loop.

I almost never come up w/a title until the fic is ready to be posted, & then I feel v. impatient while I flail around trying to come up w/something!

[glitteryv]

Editing can be inspirational (as in, getting all the scenes fit together and coherently). Here's hoping you manage to tame the surprise!plot. *g*

[anyssia]

eheh, surprise!plot xD the bane of one-shot writers! you start a short fiction and suddenly the thing is cryint at you for more, moooore, pleaaase ;p

If it's your first time getting a plot bunny like that, you might want to try to keep it simple/short enough, because you wouldn't want to disgust/discourage yourself with a thing that grows and grows without your approval ^^
It happened to me once, and I got a lot of trouble getting back on tracks afterward ^^

If I'm don't have a title already defined, I tried to catch the main idea/plot of the story, and goes from here. Poetic titles are good and well, but sometimes it's so hard to come with one, I find it better to keep it simple ^^

[laceblade]

I've been feeling pretty demoralized about my fic lately.

Firstly, depression has been bad lately so I don't feel like doing anything, fic not being exclusive.

I started replaying the game (my fic is Inception-inspired AU for FF7), and now I'm all, "Ugh! My fic doesn't do anything that the canon doesn't already do better! WTF am I even writing this for?!" blah-blah.

I haven't touched the fic in a couple weeks, I think I was sitting at something like 7,000 words at that point.

[mystiri_1]

I find that writing is pretty tied to my emotional state. When I am depressed, I don't want to write - I may have plenty of ideas, but my motivation to actually *write* is nil. At the same time, writing often helps with my depression, but only if I am doing it in a fairly social setting. RPing used to be pretty good for this, but I am not currently playing anywhere, so it's mostly challenge comms for now. In particular, things like song_prompt or fic_promptly, where it's comment fic, there are hundreds of prompts to choose from, and it's pretty low-pressure, but you are almost guaranteed a response to whatever you write. And sometimes it helps to get away from a big project. Maybe if the times cooperate you could join one of the writing sesions? I used to get a lot written during chat, especially due to the possibility of instant feedback. It's amazingly encouraging, especially to have somebody else tell you that no, your writing doesn't suck even while you're thinking the opposite.

[glitteryv]

How about breaking it up? Like, making the choice to just write 25 words today? It doesn't have to be the BEST 25 words you've ever written. But, it could get the ball rolling so to speak.

Although, I totally hear you on being down on your fic. I've had days when the idea of just opening the doc makes me do this /o\. Good luck.

[anyssia]

I'd say, don't force yourself to write. Or at least, not a lot at a time, because if you write when you're not feeling that good, you might get annoyed with what you wrote, at a later date.

That said, glitteryv suggestion's of 25 words a day is good too.

If you feel like you're 'copying' the canon too much, maybe try to tweak the plot a bit? Nothing huge, just enough to diverge a little.

Or as mystiri_1 said, try writing a short something else before coming back to your fic. That's what I currently doing too ^^ The last chapter of my main story as been beta-read and I need to check it over and changed a few things, but I can't get myself to open the file. So I tried writing something else in the meantime ^^

[jagnikjen]

Still enjoying a fandom weekend and so no writing for me. But that's okay. Maybe tomorrow...

Titles, sometimes they come to me up front and sometimes they don't. I changed a recent fic title three times before it accurately represented the story. But I don't usually struggle that much.

[glitteryv]

Fandom weekends are fun times for sure. :)

[anyssia]

Lucky you, both for the fandom thing and the titles ^^ I hope you had a good time this week-end then ;p

[mystiri_1]

Haven't written anything today, on account of being ill and generally feeling blah.

Titles are evil. I have learned to be very careful about calling a fic anything before it is finished, becaue once I call it something, I have a lot of trouble coming up with something else. My wip folder includes all sorts of weird abbreviations relating to pairings, themes and kinks, and only uses actual words if there is no chance it can pass as a title.

[glitteryv]

Oh, I hope you're feeling better. *sends you a cup of tea*

[anyssia]

Ah, my friend! ^^ I'm so happy to see that I'm not the only one having this problem. It' took me several fics before realizing that I shouldn't set myself a title (and incidentally, a plot) before writing the text, because either I don't finish the fic afterward or it's like pulling teeth >.>

(I try to limit myself a two/three plots at a time too, or I get in over my head xD)

Hope you'll get better soon (try some vitamins, it works wonders for me ^^). glitteryv provided the tea, so I'll go with the cookies ;p

[jessalae]

I actually wrote today! Halfway through the month, and I'm finally getting going, haha. It felt really good to actually get some words down, even though I know there will be plenty of editing/re-writing in my future.

Titles are... annoying. I don't have a reliable system for coming up with them, but I can't really be satisfied with a fic until I have a good title for it. It's a great recipe for frustration.

[glitteryv]

Woot for new words! Once you start writing, it's fairly easy to keep adding more. *cheers you on*

[anyssia]

The problem with titles is that there isn't a miracle recipe >.> Or maybe, close your eyes and point your finger at the screen xD

Actually, now that I think of it, maybe trying this: http://www.wordle.net/
It's a word cloud generator: you copy/paste your text and you'll get a cloud of the most used words. If you ignore the obvious characters name and most common words, maybe there might be a way to use the other words... *ponders, ponders*

[curuchamion]

Titles! I used to agonize over titles, usually - although a couple of times a story would start with the title and go from there, yes! Lately (after building up a backlog of half a dozen finished stories waiting for titles) I've just been saying "the heck with it" and throwing on the first vaguely related poetry quotation I could come up with.

Significant progress: I keep learning more about my guys and their relationship. Not much writing since Thursday, but I think I may understand Mort a lot better than I did when I left.

Significant panicking I'm trying to put off till after May is over, but there is so much potential for fail of many kinds in this story. It scares me rather.

Deadlines... well, I'm 5648 words behind. This is a bit unsettling. O_O But I have two weeks or so to catch up and blast through the rest of this!

[glitteryv]

Well, two weeks is enough time. Do you have a certain word goal that you must get to?

[anyssia]

That's the spirit! \O/ Keep trying, we'll be there to cheer you up! ^^

Titles can be such a pain in the a** ;p
Is it a long story? If you feel that it as potential to go awry, maybe try writing down those parts down and detail them a bit, to have a more detailed outline to stick to?

[raletha]

Writing yesterday was mostly slicing and dicing stuff that wasn't quite working and realising a section I had cut from the second draft needed to make a return (but in a wholly rewritten form). New word count only ~250, but heavy editing always feels virtuous somehow.

With titles I am kinda lazy. If something doesn't immediately come to mind, I tend toward one word titles unless I can find a bit of poetry or song lyric to use. It is not my favourite part of the process, and I rarely feel like my titles are inspired.

[glitteryv]

Dude, 250 words + hardcore editing = WIN no matter how you look at it. Go you!

[lacerta]

I did research for an AU last night and I think I've got the basics covered, so I can get on with writing now. It's exiciting!

[glitteryv]

Happy writing!

[glitteryv]

Added 650 new words to my fic. I'm feeling somewhat confident that I'll get to my word count goal. *crosses fingers*

As for titles, I don't start writing until I have one. Because, once I've titled my story, it's like a signal to myself that says "OK, we're doing this." Most of the time, the title will hint at the general theme of the story. If it's a C6D (Canadian Six Degrees) fic, then I tend to pick a lyric from a Headstones song. It's, like, an extra touch of Canadiana. :)

[anyssia]

What's your goal? 650 words is good (very good for me, I write so slowly ^^;;).

Headstones has some great songs, I bet you can find good titles fairly easily with those.

It's interesting to hear about how people work on their fics: between those how find the title first, those who get a flash of light during the story of 'oh, that's it!' and those who panic right before publishing it xD