Check-in: 22 May 2011

[charamei]

Hello, everyone! How's your writing going today? Any deadlines coming up? Massaging the wordcount, or reining in the characters with minds of their own?


Discussion question: In those wonderful early drafts, what's the most important thing for you to get right, and what makes you give something up as a lost cause? (If you have never abandoned a piece of writing, I hate you so much congratulations!) For example, are you okay with flat characters as long as you have an outline, or would you rather have a character who can take you by the hand when you get lost? Or is there something else entirely?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

No words today; I'm going out of town on Wednesday & seem to have descended into pre-trip anxiety early! Spent some time wrestling w/my carry-on bag instead (protip: those compression bags are GREAT, but will not actually allow you to put an infinite number of clothes in your bag) & making lists of things to pack & things to do before I leave.

As far as first drafts... hm. I don't know! If the story makes me squee--if the characters make me squee--when I read things over, then generally I know I'm going in the right direction & stick w/things. Sometimes I throw over things just because they involve research that I feel too overwhelmed to do at the moment. I've been having Attack of the Actual Plot this month & I am close to ditching a story or two just because... I don't do plot, I do feeeeeelings & I dunno if I can deal w/plot right now. Then again, that might mean I just put it in a metaphorical drawer for a couple of months.

[curuchamion]

Well, I may have gotten back on something resembling a track with this story; at any rate, the guys are busy setting up for an impromptu music-fest instead of staring mutely at me and daring me to write them. *g* I'm away from my own computer, so I can't state a wordcount, but hopefully I'll be able to do more during the week than I have this weekend.

As to when or why I'll ditch a draft? I have to get the tone of a story right pretty early on - for instance, I have an epic AU Captain America origin fic that's one scene and a whole lot of notes, but the voice of that one scene is so right that I've never considered that story abandoned. OTOH, I have stories in other fandoms that had a good concept, but I was never able to get the right tone, so I'll probably never go back to them.

(I don't often delete a draft, though. I learned that lesson after posting - just for laughs - a story I'd come within a finger-twitch of deleting forever, and having it become one of my most popular pieces and even get recced on Calufrax! Many times it just takes a few months or years of settling to let the good part of a dreck piece float to the top and be skimmed off for reinterpretation somewhere else.)

So, yeah... I wouldn't say I need a character who can take me by the hand when I get lost, but I do need either a clear voice (narrative or character) or a mental snapshot to write to: something definite that can serve as a touchstone for the fic when I get lost in my own meanderings.

(With this novel, I got that toward the end of the first day when I wrote James and Mort in the same scene together for the first time. I keep going back to that when I lose track of their essential characters or relationship. So, a specific example! *g*)

[rubyfruit]

When it comes to drafts, it's critically important that I get the pacing of the story right. I usually give up on a draft when I start to hate it. As in, when I can't find anything to like about a given draft, it gets scrapped entirely. Most of the time I have to abandon writings because I have more ideas in my head than hands to write them.

[bay_alexison]

Sometimes I get overwhelmed too to do any research. It happens, ack.

Feelings~ are fun to do and I enjoyed writing those kind of stories, haha. I don't have trouble able to come up plots for my story, but the plots tend to be longer than I thought, making me think, "When I'll be able to finish this!" D: Hopefully you'll figure out what to do with that Attack of the Actual Plot.

[bay_alexison]

Pacing is one big factor for me too in drafts. If the pacing isn't going well the first time around, I tend to either scrap the draft or rewrite parts/all of the story. D:

[linaewen]

I have added a very rough 400 words to the main story I've been concentrating on lately; those words need more development as well as editing, but it'll do to go on with.

I also managed another rough section of about 300 words for my Big Bang fic. I'm going to have to do better than that and soon, but any little bit of progress is good at this point.

Discussion: I think most of my early drafts have ended up turning into stories -- save one, which ended up becoming obsolete after I learned it didn't fit with canon. I still have the notes and the ideas saved in a file, though, and may go back to it one day. ;-) My drafts tend to start out as lengthy outlines with detailed notes and research, to make sure my ideas will work within the bounds of Alternate Universe - Canon that I tend to like to write. Outlines really help me keep on track and also help me somewhat with writer's block. Even if I can't get the characters to talk to me, I at least know the gist of what they are supposed to be saying, and eventually they'll stop being ornery and say it right and stop being flat. ;-)

The closest I have come to giving something up was when I couldn't figure out how to do what I knew I wanted to do and still make it work with the characters and story time line I had in place. (I'm really persnickety about things all fitting together chronologically.) I think that was one time when the characters actually helped me out by "showing" me a different way of dealing with the problem that was in character but could be made to fit time-wise, so it worked out nicely in the end.

[jagnikjen]

No writing for the 22nd. I read and read and read. Finished one book and started another.

An early draft is just that: an early draft. Even if I know what I'm saying isn't what I want to say, I keep writing until the story gets to where I want it to be. TBH, I don't think I've ever abandoned a piece of writing completely. I may have set it aside for a week or two, but I have amazingly few unfinished stories. At least fan fic-wise.

Original fiction-wise, I think all (six?) of them are in various states of unfinished because I can't plot my way out of a paper bag and plot is crucial to get published.

[bay_alexison]

Saturday I was able to get around 700 words for one of my stories and brainstorm a couple ideas/check canon stuff for my second help_Japan fic. Yesterday I was planning to do writing and editing, but my mom kept telling me to help her with many things. D: I didn't get any writing done but managed to do some editing for the story I wrote the extra words on Saturday. Hopefully today I'll get to editing the help_Japan fic I had finished the rough draft of and turn it in to my beta.

I already mentioned that pacing is one big factor when doing a draft. I'm picky when it comes to rushing/really slowing down the plot. If the pacing isn't going well the first time around, I tend to either scrap the draft or rewrite parts/all of the story.

[glitteryv]

Forgot to post here yesterday. Took advantage of a plan that fell through to sit down and add 1,103 new words to my goal fic. Seeing how I have a self-impose deadline (to have at least 20k words by May 31st), I am in the "write til you're cross-eyed" mode. *g*

I've noticed that the few drafts/plot bunnies I end up losing focus and enthusiasm are those in which I don't really know why XYZ characters are in ABC situation. Coming up with an idea is super-easy, but figuring out the characters' motivations is what will keep me writing. From there, I'll do a rough outline of key scenes (not like it's all set in stone, just as a kind of map for me to keep me from, say, writing myself into a corner.)

[glitteryv]

*nods* Like you, I have to be enthusiastic about my fic if I want to see it done (including going through beta and rewrites).

I hope you have a safe travel. :)

[glitteryv]

Yay you for getting back on track-ish with the story!

Also, I totes hate it when the characters keep tapping their feet and giving me that look of "C'mon, what am I/are we doing now in the story?" Hee!

[glitteryv]

Interesting. I start worrying about pacing during the beta process (which is when I might get my ears pulled for losing the momentum somewhere in the story.)

[glitteryv]

Woot to those 700 new words, linaewen! ANY bit of progress is indeed a fantastic thing. Eventually you'll reach a point in which you'll have ALL these words and you'll wonder where they came from. :)

[glitteryv]

Kicking back, eh?

[glitteryv]

Editing is one of the most important parts of writing so, I give you snaps for working on your fic. :)