WIP challenge - day 8 check in

[lullabymoon]

Poll #7704

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8

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What ficcish activity have you done today?

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Wrote
6 (75.0%)

Edited
2 (25.0%)

Researched
2 (25.0%)

Procrastinated
2 (25.0%)

Posted
1 (12.5%)

Will explain in comments
0 (0.0%)

If you wrote, how many words did you manage?

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0-249
2 (25.0%)

250-499
1 (12.5%)

500-749
0 (0.0%)

750-999
1 (12.5%)

1000 or more
4 (50.0%)

Today's discussion topic: The flipside of yesterday, what don't you like reading or writing and are they two different things?

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I'm a badass cuz I had to get on a 6:45 AM coach this morning but I did my 750 Words beforehand (I think around 5:30?). I managed 800-ish words of fic. Probably not usable--though there might be a drabble in there, if I can cut everything else around it--but v. satisfying. Like a mini-id fic.

I don't tend to like a lot of AUs! They just don't draw me in all that often. I also seem to have read a lot more bad genderswap than good/interesting genderswap (that might be partly a function of my fandoms & that I don't tend to fic for fandoms I'm not in). So I don't write either of those things either, natch!

[lacerta]

You are badass indeed!

Funnily, the sheer amount of frustratingly bad genderswap actually got me into writing one.

[lullabymoon]

Wow, that's dedication! Also, yay for satisfying words.

[jagnikjen]

Lost my steam this afternoon as it was too hot...

Most kink is not my thing--not that I'm a prude, 'cause I don't mind NC-17 stuff, I don't even mind slash if it's done well and I can suspend my disbelief and buy the pairing. Mpreg is just not interesting to me, not that I've run into much of it.

What I really don't like reading is bad fic. :P Unfortunately I'm very picky and have pretty high standards. If I'm not reeled in right off the bat, I'm done. If I'm inundated with bad spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc right off the bat, I'm done. My reading time is too valuable to waste.

[lullabymoon]

Ugh, I hate the heat.

I think bad fic is something none of us like (except to make us feel better about our own writing!).

[lacerta]

I watched the last few episodes of BSG today (finally!) and went back to a little ficlet that's been sitting around for a while. My plan was to write it as slash fic, but I could never figure out how to get the curve from where I started. So I tossed the planned ending, re-wrote it to stick closer to a single episode and now I'm... well... I might be just a little proud ^^

For the discussion topic: I'll read most things if I see them recced somewhere. The only trope I really don't care about are high school AUs, though that's probably because I associate too many unfunny teen movies with that.

[lullabymoon]

Sounds like a good day! :D

[katzenjamming]

I wrote today, but not anything for my WIPs. I took a break while still writing this absolutely horrid idfic that will never ever see the light of day. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things tomorrow.

I tend to avoid OCs like the plague (though I'm guilty of writing some every now and again). In my experience, I've only very, very rarely seen one in fic that I've found palatable. They tend to take away attention from that characters I'm reading for. I also try to avoid reading and writing anything too smutty or kinky, mostly because I'm asexual and really don't "get" what turns people on, hahah.

[ficwriter1966]

I'm guilty of writing quite a bit involving OCs - but I think you're right. I don't usually want to read about them in great detail, either. I think their main purpose is (or should be) to illuminate the main character(s), not to tell their own story. Although creating and developing OCs does help us develop our original-fiction skills, so I guess they've got their place!

[katzenjamming]

I definitely agree with that! My biggest problem with most of the OCs I've seen is that they (unnecessarily) take the spotlight from the canon characters I want to read about. They should illuminate the canon characters, though in those cases it's easy for them to end up seeming like plot devices... It's a tricky balance, and one I personally don't think I've got a complete handle on yet, to be honest!

[snowynight]

1000 words of fic done.

I don't tend to read or write fic that has distressful ending. The world is gloom enough without me adding to it.

I also avoid fic that details how a characters is broken without parts. It feels uncomfortable.

[bay_alexison]

Was able to do a few things today. Betaed my friend's fic to check over the corrections she did and the story was much better, so I only suggested a few minor changes, writing style wise. After that my muse told me to quickly add some lines for my springkink fic (added in 100 extra words there), and I did. XD I then did a bit of canon research material before doing my Big Bang and wrote around 530 words. Could have done more, but I did some other writerly stuff today, so yeah.

Pretty much a few shipping stuff like incest, adult/child, and non-con I don't tend to read because I'm not drawn into them at all.

[rebecca2525]

1500 words! After a pulling-teeth-phase during the weekend, yesterday I could finally do the last scenes I've been wanting to write since the start and finished my first draft! \o/ That went faster than expected, and I've reached my goal to finish the draft before going on holidays. I've also started to read an essay about the play my story is based on and am taking notes how it compares so that I can keep that in mind when I start editing.

I'm very picky with what I read (in my small fandoms not as picky as I would be otherwise, but still) so there's a lot I normally don't even give a try. AUs, kink, character death, dark fic, curtain fic, kid fic, non-con, ...

As for writing, I tend to be drawn to the funny, light-hearted or matter-of-fact stuff, not to overly emotional stuff. (Although I read the latter, too.)

[ficwriter1966]

Hey! Congratulations on finishing that first draft! That is *such* a relief, when you finally get everything in place.

Hope you have a great time on your holidays! :)

[ficwriter1966]

Ouch! Once again I'm a bit late to the party. But I have success to report: I finally finished and posted Part 3 of the infamous WIP! One more part to go - woo hoo! I have quite a bit of free time this week so I'm hoping to get that thing put to bed.

What don't I like to write? I'm not keen on crossovers (although one of my most popular stories is a crossover, so go figure). I also tend to steer away from anything that includes a lot of action (including NC-17) because it's so darn hard to choreograph!

As far as things I don't like to read - I don't care for slash or RPF; I tend to stay very canon-ish in my reading. Beyond that, I gravitate towards things that are really well written, things that really give me something to dig into and think about, so if I click into a story and it's poorly written, I usually won't stick around to finish it.

For the mods, here's a suggestion for a future discussion topic: I used to write exclusively in past tense, but after I'd seen a number of people use present tense and it seemed to work well for them, I gave it a try - and now it's an effort for me to write in past tense! I'd love to see what everyone in the comm thinks about this trend, whether they enjoy it or not, does it influence your own writing and so on.

[lullabymoon]

Yay for finishing and posting!

That's definitely an interesting topic, in fact I think it's more interesting than the one I had planned for today so we'll see what the comm thinks :)

[lacygrey]

Ive been doing some scene planning. I'm trying to think in story parts achieved rather than word count as word count is turning out a bit arbitrary for me these days: Ive got one scene thats 5000 and another thats 300. I wanted them to be equal in importance but clearly ones a bit drowned and the other's a bit sparse.

Also, trying to deal with an unexpected thing happening to a particular character (will the reader buy it etc etc), but it would be unexpected whoever it happened to so I'm telling myself that its not a problem - people are supposed to be surprised.


What I dislike in fic: I'm sure I've got lots of little fussy dislikes that arn't really important if the prose is enjoyable. One thing I do abhor though is the appropriation of a fictional character for a polital or social cause completely out of line with any canon reference - that just plain annoys me, well written fic or not.