WIP challenge - day 7 check in!

[littlebutfierce]

7 days in: that's a full week! How are you feeling, WIP-challengers?

Poll #7216 Day 7 check-in!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12

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How is your fic making you feel today?

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Me + fic = OTP
2 (16.7%)

Minor levels of squee
3 (25.0%)

We're on speaking terms, just barely
6 (50.0%)

I wish it would put me out of my misery
1 (8.3%)

And what did you do today for your fic?

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Write
7 (58.3%)

Edit
5 (41.7%)

Send to beta
0 (0.0%)

Research
2 (16.7%)

Procrastinate
4 (33.3%)

Something else I will describe in comments
2 (16.7%)

Post it
0 (0.0%)

Three words or less about your fic:

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And for discussion: What's your strongest point in writing fic? What's your weakest point? (& yes, please come up with one of each!)

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

~760 words on my second help_japan fic. This one's just been plaguing me. Hopefully now that I have a slightly different focus I can make some progress. Maybe another day or two of pulling words out of me (like pulling teeth, this one) & then some editing to cram stuff together?

My strongest point is my ability to just crank out words at the start of a fic. I am good at telling myself to write crap, just don't care about it, just write, & then... magically amidst the crap, there are saveable bits. (I wish this ability wasn't taking so much of a break w/this particular fic, though.)

I am resisting the urge to list lots of weak points for myself! But one of them (I dunno if it's my weakest, period) is... um. Difficulty making a plot hang together. But I am hoping that is mostly just lack of practice, & maybe that will get easier w/time.

[glitteryv]

Go you for those new words! Also, I know what you mean about a fic practically fighting you to get written.

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you! & yes, augh, the words! So painful! I... dunno if I have the energy to wrestle w/them again today. :P

[curuchamion]

I haven't written yet today. I'm going to get some more sleep, but really I just don't feel like writing anything in particular. (And the sheer number of WIPs I have makes it hard to just pick one and finish it.)

*will get back on the wagon, yes*

My strongest point in writing fic is the ability to let the characters just take over my brain and be awesome. My weakest point is trying to plan anything out ahead of time. ;-)

[glitteryv]

Yes, you will back on the wagon. *g* I hope that there's a WIP or plot bunneh that will catch your attention soon.

[curuchamion]

Thanks! Once I'd had enough sleep that I remembered I had a ficathon to write for, I wrote the entire story in less than 24 hours! XD Except for making up two alien words and checking some canon details, it's ready for beta. 1100+ words, yay me! :D

(I boggle myself, seriously. O_O)

[littlebutfierce]

Wow!!! Sweet! Congratulations--that's awesome. The healing power of sleep, yay!

[gb]

Sweet sod-all progress. I've gotten over the terrible mood I was in at the beginning of the month and reassessed some priorities. Positive thinking!

My strongest point is choreographing pivotal plot scenes (if that makes sense?). My weakest is translating all these dang notes to actual prose...

[glitteryv]

A lot can be accomplished with positive thinking, that's for sure. Yay you for kicking the bad mood away. :)

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for being able to reassess your priorities--whether or not that leaves more/less/any room for fic this month, that's a really good thing to do.

I am pretty bad at scene-choreography, so I salute you!

[linaewen]

I'm feeling good right now, having completed the editing for Fic A. It is now officially finished. I haven't posted it yet, because it's for a challenge and I got done early. :-D So that's one goal for the month down and three to go.

My strong point in writing fic is copious planning and outlining in advance, as well as the amount of research I do, so that everything that takes place in the story is believable and fits with canon.

My weak point is that I love dashes and semicolons way too much -- did you notice? :-D I usually have to go back and edit them out and try to use a few more periods or something.

[glitteryv]

*gives you thumbs up* One fic down is cause for celebration! *\o/*

[xpaperplanex]

I love me some dashes and semicolons and use way too many of them. And yay for finishing your fic!

[lacygrey]

Well done for finishing early

[littlebutfierce]

Finishing early is AWESOME. Yay!!! & wow, you finished one goal in a week--maybe that bodes well for the three goals that correspond w/the other weeks of the month!

I must confess I, too, love dashes & semicolons. It's true, I have to edit mine out a lot of the time! Otherwise every other sentence would use them -- like this -- as I try to be clever. ;)

[lexicalcrow]

I was at work most of the day, and didn't have time to add more than a few paragraphs, but it's better than nothing. I just need to sit down and make up for that today and get some words down. The more this thing progresses, the closer it gets to being finished. So yes.

My weakest point is probably planning. My characters generally don't like sticking to plans. I started my first NaNo in 2006 with a plan. Two days in, it was ditched for something else entirely. So yes. I don't work well with plans. :P

As for strongest point... does research count? Cos I'm a badass researcher. I research everything. That, and I can't think of anything else to put here. XD

[glitteryv]

Some words are hella better than NO words, imho. :)

[lexicalcrow]

Indeed they are. But I've got the whole day to write now, so I'm not that worried. I'm going to do some revisions and keep going and see how far I get. :D That time of the month is good for something at least. XD *hugs wheat cushion*

[littlebutfierce]

A few paragraphs is a great accomplishment when you've been working all day! I wish work would interfere less w/my fic writing, myself...

Researching definitely counts as a strong point!

I'm not a great planner either, although I mostly get away w/it b/c I don't write longfic. Except I might be starting... -_-;;

[terajk]

Today:

Do lots of housework. Avoid queer_fest fic in hopes it will magically write itself while I am working.

Look at fic, edit it slightly, tell it to write itself while I sleep.

Write 500 words of something else entirely. (It's a Friuts Basket/Puella Magi Madoka Magica crossover, with spoilers for the latter).

My weakest point in writing fic is definitely writing something with an actual plot. I've never written anything over 1500 words successfully. (The queer_fest fic is 1450 words so far, and not close to done. Eep!) I haven't mastered the fine art of making several things happen in time yet.

A strong point for me is probably getting characters to have conversations with each other.

[glitteryv]

Oh, if only ALL of our fics could be magically written *sighs* I hope that you get to finish your queer_fest fic. *cheers you on*

[littlebutfierce]

Hey, housework has to be done! And... sometimes if the house is too messy (especially if the room w/the computer is too messy) it's distracting when I'm trying to do other stuff anyway. Maybe focusing on that & only doing a little editing will have been a good break for your fic-brain! That & writing something else--hahaha, I do that too. Words are words, though. Fic is fic! So yaaaay for you!

& ohhhhh I feel your pain about having trouble w/plot, especially as a shortfic writer (I seem to be gradually creeping towards longer fics, but my longest thus far is still less than 4k, so... I'm creeping v. slowly!).

[glitteryv]

1350 words today--slightly under what I wanted to achieve. OTOH, I also edited stuff in and out of the fic so, I'm not fretting hardcore.

My strongest point is the ability of making cracky plots and pairings work. I've lost count of how many times people have commented (both online and offline/in RL) something like "I saw the header and thought 'no way' only to end up digging the story in the end."

My weakest point is my grammar (which is why I always use a Beta reader unless it's a snippet.) Though not atrocious, there's a lot to be fixed once I'm done with a first draft. :-/

[littlebutfierce]

1350 words is nevertheless totally badass, even if you were hoping for more! So yaaaaay!

I am in awe of your crackfic prowess. Good crackfic is amaaaaazing, but... I just don't think I have it in me to write it. ;___;

[xpaperplanex]

About 300 words today, then I got distracted by the archives of a shiny new (to me) webcomic and all hope was lost for writing.

My strong point is probably my plots, though I'm bad at realizing that I've got a plotty fic until it's way longer than I expected and not at all what I had intended it to be. But I like that. My best fic (in my opinion) was meant to be a silly crack piece and turned into a really great plotful longfic.

My weak point is describing things. There's purple prose and then there's me, way down at the other end of the spectrum going don't be silly, you don't need to know what anything looks/feels/tastes/sounds like. I know, that's good enough.

[lacygrey]

Description is not for everybody, including readers: I have a friend who just skips 'boring' descriptive passages in books and moves onto the next conversation or proper action scene.

In fanfic, where the reader has the canon in their head, then its probably possible to get away with very little, as its kind of done for you.

I do try to do it, but integrated with the rest as I'm aware it adds bulk without adding story and I want to have something happen story-wise in each screenful if possible.

[littlebutfierce]

In fanfic, where the reader has the canon in their head, then its probably possible to get away with very little, as its kind of done for you.

This is assuming the reader is familiar w/canon! I pretty much only read fic when I know the canon, but I know lots of people who use fic as a way to get into new fandoms & thus don't always know what's going on when they plunge in (this never would've occurred to me to do until people told me that's what they do, heh).

But yeah, the v. first fic I wrote, someone suggested I needed to put in more explain-y/descriptive bits & I was like, uhhhh... people will know this, they've read the books. Ahahaha.

I have found some really lovely descriptive bits in fic--I wish I could pull that off more. Mine tends to be more utilitarian. OTOH I've seen people put in chunks of description in really clunky ways, &... at least I don't do that (I think?).

[littlebutfierce]

Hey, at least you got the 300 words in! Maybe your brain really just needed a break from the fic, & the webcomic's appearance was just serendipitous. ;)

I have trouble putting in descriptions sometimes, too -- it's so easy to do badly &... yeah.

[snowynight]

500 words today. I have too many wip in need of writing to be satisfied.

My strongest point is coming up with cracky idea.

My weakest point is planning. The characters go out of my control too frequently.

[littlebutfierce]

Awwww, 500 words still sounds good to me, but I hope you have better luck writing a higher word count (if that's what you're aiming for) today!

I am so in awe of people who are good at coming up w/plots in general, but also cracky ones! I'm terrible at either.

[lacygrey]

Strong points and Weak points. Perhaps its a bit soon to know: I don't think that my total fic posted makes it over 20K words in total. Possibly minor characters are one of my strong points and main character slash is my weak point, going on number and content of comments.

Ive been wondering about making totally private entries on my journal about my detailed fic plotting thoughts for the present WIP. They'd be spoilery for the fic, which is why I'd make them private. They'd also probably be boring for anyone else and too introspective.

Then, once the fic's finished I could make them public and label them as author notes. I think my reason for wanting to do this is that I don't have an omnipotent beta (one who knows the outcome of the story). I need my betas to be ignorant of the plot direction so that I can test whether it works. In other words, I'm the only one that knows whats really going on and thats a bit lonely.

[littlebutfierce]

Hm... I don't know if my total fic word count is much higher than that, either (actually I have no idea what it might be, heh, but I am relatively new to writing fic, & not a longfic writer, so it's probably not v. high). Still, I feel like I have some definite ideas about what I am good at--what works for me--& what makes me want to bang my head into the desk w/seemingly every fic, hehehe.

Doing the private entries to help yourself plot out the fic sounds like a really good idea! & yeah, then they could be author notes or DVD commentary. I can definitely see how you'd want to keep your betas in the dark, as well.

[jagnikjen]

Mostly tweaking on a Stargate: Atlants fic I haven't looked at in awhile.

My challenge fic is coming along, I'm not worried about it. My men are fixin' to be gone for a month straight so I'll have PLENTY of time for writing. (And yes I am from Texas. :P)

Strongest: basics, dialogue, cliffhangers

Weakest: plot, emotion

[littlebutfierce]

Yay for having lots of writing time coming up! Hope you won't be lonely in the house (sometimes I am if my partner is away!).

& yay for tweaking, especially on a fic you haven't looked at in a while--hopefully having some distance from it helped?

[jagnikjen]

I am rarely lonely, actually. I have always been good at keeping myself occupied.

Plus hubby and I work together so we see each other ALL day, EVERY day, as well as at night, so when he's gone selling fireworks, it's a nice change of pace. My daughter is home though, so I'm really not all alone while the men are gone.

But I get my bed to myself, which is nice. And my house actually stays clean. :)