October WIP challenge - day 1 check-in!

[littlebutfierce]

So! We're here at the start of another WIP challenge month. Let's start off by talking a little bit about the fic(s) we'll be working on. I know in the past I've asked people what they thought they'd find challenging about their stories, but let's begin this month talking about what's going to be awesome about our fics!

What bits do you like already from what you've written? Do you have a thrilling plot in your head waiting to be written down? Is this fic going to showcase a character that you think needs more love? Maybe this is the first time you're writing a plotty fic or a multi-chaptered fic or a smutty fic? Let us know!

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

My main goal for the month is finishing my K-On! help_japan fic. This fic is going to be awesome because, of the 5 main characters, the person who won the auction requested the story focus on the 1 character whose head I find it hard to get into. But I think I found a way to center the character & understand her. & the fic, if I ever get it finished, is hopefully going to be sweet fluff w/occasional vaguely humorous moments.

[glitteryv]

I've got two fics to tackle this month:

* a due South/Bandom (MCR) femslash fic that I'm feeling ridiculously protective about 'cause one half of the pairing is an MtF person. Thankfully, my BFF (who's usually my sounding board) is totes excited to see this fic done (she keeps poking me about it enough for me to have worked out the outline way in advance.) I'm equal parts amused and intrigued as femslash is not her thing AT ALL. I'm at 7k words; aiming at 12k when the rough draft is done. It's deffo going to be NC-17.

* a Bandom (MCR) AU for said BFF. It's an AU. I've got 2.5k words down and about 8-10k more to go. There's nothing but a skeleton outline for this one--something I usually try to avoid since that means I might lose interest in the story since I don't know how it's going to end. I also have to do some crazy amounts of research since it's set in the real world (the AU part is that the Bandom peeps aren't in a band.) This one might end up being a soft-ish R.

[littlebutfierce]

something I usually try to avoid since that means I might lose interest in the story since I don't know how it's going to end

Oooh, interesting -- I love hearing how people's minds work wrt their writing. I pretty much never outline, but I never write fic longer than about 6k anyway, so it would probably have limited use for me. Regardless I often start fics not knowing how they're going to end. :D

There isn't enough trans fic out there, so best wishes for your story!

[rhi]

I'm working on a story with three different endings depending on how dark people want their horror (it's for a Halloween spooky stories ficathon), and need to write four other stories this month, with neat villains or mixes of fandoms. I'm really looking forward to seeing if I can go from horror to Miss Marple.

Time to get back to it, I think!!

[littlebutfierce]

Three different endings! That sounds like a ton of fun!!! Good luck w/it.

[rhi]

Well, my brain kept shuttling between them and I finally thought, "If I write the story up to this point... yeah, all three endings are possible from there." So I'm going to. ::glee:: Fun! Thanks for the good wishes, and good luck with your stories!

[lacerta]

I'll be working on two stories for the Fandom Free for All Exchange. One is a remix which is super exciting because I've never written a remix of someone else's fic before. The other is a post-apocalyptic, domestic scenario and I haven't got much of a plan for it yet, but the whole world-building is fun. And I love the combination of post-apocalypse and domesticity :D

[littlebutfierce]

Post-apocalyptic & domesticity does sound like an intriguing combo!! Good luck w/that & the remix (& moving house -- is it today you're actually moving???).

[lacerta]

Aw, thank you! And yes, I did move today - it was exhausting, but I'm so glad it's finally done and the place looks really nice (even if it's a mess at the moment and the cats are terrified, poor things).

[littlebutfierce]

Yay, I'm glad it went well! & heh, our kitties weren't best pleased when we moved either. Hope yours forgive you soon, & good luck w/the unpacking!

[bay_alexison]

For this month I'll be mainly focusing on my Big Bang. I want to get the fourth chapter done (I might actually get the rough draft of it done tonight!) and get the first four chapters beta'd and polished before I send it to my potential artists. There are a lot of stuff in the story I'm still unsure of, but there also a lot of stuff I'm fairly proud of. POLITICS AND ROMANCE, WOO. @_@

I'm also hoping to finish one of the story prompts written as I have a neat idea where the two characters (oddly enough, the same characters are in my Big Bang, heh) are visiting a haunted house and it's very appropriate for Halloween, LOL.

[littlebutfierce]

It sounds like the politics stuff required a lot of hard work, so yay for you!!

[rebecca2525]

I'll continue working on my Cabin Pressure fic and hopefully get it sent to a first beta.

I've already edited the first half, and I'm quite satisfied with it so far. After finishing the first draft, I had the feeling it would be much worse! But I like the dialogue. Now I'm a little stuck at a scene that needs to be rewritten from scratch, and I find it hard to get a handle on it.

[littlebutfierce]

Oh, it's always such a relief when you look over a draft & it's better than you thought! Good luck w/the scene rewriting.

[lilly_c]

I'll be working on my Taggart fic for smallfandombang although I'm having slight change of heart about writing the original idea though and I don't know that many people within the fandom so I'm undecided about going about ahead and writing the new idea. Gah :(
Original idea = focusing on Robbie's upbringing and childhood (his father was abusive) as well as how the case (from the ep Safer) really affected him because his reactions to it and behaviour in general were a little unsettling.
New idea = focusing on the last 2 eps of the series (Bloodsport, The Ends Of Justice) and the Robbie/Jackie dynamic as well as his addictions and how Jackie and the others on the team deal with it because they didn't really do enough (IMHO) especially in The Ends Of Justice.
Oh yeah I feel screwed over by my head right now :$

At some point I'll be working on huge L&O: SVU fic, at this stage I'll be happy with a vague outline for at least one chapter but I'll take anything that comes for it, even if it's only 200 words or so they'll be something.

I signed up for prompt_in_a_box again, hopefully I'll manage to post this month. For last month's round I wrote for all 3 prompts but ran out of time to post them (life got ridiculously busy). At least I have the November round to post any fics written for earlier rounds and that round is very useful :)

Hate having to prioritise but before I can get cracking on my fics, I need to get my seminar prep work for this week done first. Heavy workload already.

[littlebutfierce]

Aw, it's tricky when you don't have a good sounding board in the fandom. :/ Good luck w/that, the other fics (& yay for finishing 3 prompts last month!), & balancing that w/your uni stuff.

[lacygrey]

I'll be working on Hikago fic (as usual!) this month. When I signed up I put 'I want to write three chapters fo my next fic' but with what I've learned about my/the writing process since then I think I'll have to be a little more specific.

The first thing I learnt last month was an important difference between shortfic and longfic. Up until writing 'Islands' (BigBang fic with ~20K goal yet to see light of day). I thought that the difference was merely one of length (and consequent number of events made possible), but its also the potential for plot complexity and depth. Its a different medium.

Another thing I learnt was the importance of deadlines. I often work very close up to them before letting go. If anything, its the deadline that forces me to let go - Like with September's Blind Go. For the BigBang though, the community relaxed the deadline - so I relaxed, which was fatal for me actually making the original date.

So, in October, I think Ive got to find a system of personal deadlines. 'Three chapters' is just too vague (and my word counts fluctuate wildly so they don't mean much). My latest idea is to say is that when I have a fic writing session (which I hope will be most days), I'll aim to either draft write or revise an entire scene. Its still pretty vague, but I hope its an improvement.

So, tonight I'm revising the Islands 'climax scene' - or the closest you get to a climax scene in the calm universe of Hikago. The characters are about to get the train home after an Igo conference when they realise one of the party is missing...

[littlebutfierce]

Oooh, sounds like you learned a lot of really useful stuff about the way you work!! I think for me deadlines that are too close make me freeze up -- it's good to know how you respond to them! (But OTOH, having a deadline too far off in the future, like the poetry_fiction amnesty period, apparently makes me put off things if they're not in my fandom of the moment...)

I also take your point about the difference between shortfic & longfic -- one reason I suspect I will never be a longfic writer. ^^;;

Good luck setting deadlines that are useful for you!

[jagnikjen]

No writing for Saturday--was doing band mom duties and then recovering there from!

My primary goal is to complete my exchange fic. At least 1000 words by Nov. 15th without much direction from the requestee.

I am already past the minimum word count, so no problem there, but I am, alas, facing my recurring weak point: love scenes. The fic must be R or NC-17 rated which I can do without qualms. It's making them truly *love* scenes rather than excerpts of porn that I struggle with.

[littlebutfierce]

Ah well, RL rearing its head again. At least high school band stuff should be fun (I hope? I am probably projecting my own memories of having been in band, ha -- & also our band sucked, so we had no pressure of competition ;).

Good luck getting the love in your love scenes! I think sometimes I find that challenging, too -- how to make things tender or honest or whatever w/o making them seem really cliched (& also how to make it so that doesn't seem just shoehorned in among the porny bits).

[jagnikjen]

Some stuff is fun, but while working at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in a concession stand can be fun, it *is* hard work and I come home pretty tuckered out. Football games are fun except when we're stuck on the buses waiting out the lightning. ;)

Thanks for the luck. I just took a class on getting the sexual tension on the page, so hopefully that will help some with making the love scenes actual *love* scenes and not just sex scenes. *fingers crossed*

[taelle]

I'm, uh, not sure at all about what's awesome about the fic which is my main goal for October. I failed to finish it in September because I grew out of habit of doing long(er) fics; not that I ever had much of a habit that way. I'm better at character studies... still, the way this is supposed to work, if I clear up the structure of the fic in my head, this'll be a multitude of separate voices/POVs giving a bigger picture - or just a more complicated one.
(For once I decided that if I want to do longer fic, I should use what I know to do, that is, short POV/character studies/monologues. I just didn't go far enough/plan well enough. Let's hope I fare better in October.)

... I am not yet at it, though - I try to get back into the habit of writing by finishing unfinished ficlets and writing up ficlet ideas running around, trying not to worry about writing badly and just, well, writing.

[littlebutfierce]

For once I decided that if I want to do longer fic, I should use what I know to do, that is, short POV/character studies/monologues.

Oooh, yes, I'm w/you there. Although then when I tried to write a longfic, my beta ended up telling me (quite correctly!) that it would work better as 3 shorter pieces after all, ahahaha. But yeah, I do much better w/character studies & feeeeelings rather than plot. ^^;;;

trying not to worry about writing badly and just, well, writing.

That sounds like a really good way to go -- good luck w/it!

[taelle]

*laughs* Maybe this fic of mine is really a drabble collection/chain of drabbles?

And thanks - I'm trying (and using this challenge for this).

[eggcrack]

Late comment, but my main project for this month is a story for spook_me, for which I'm writing a werewolf based story for my regular fandom, FFVII. The basic story and its themes are ready in my mind, but I need to make a proper plan for it and then write it out. I've been on a fanfic break for a while now and I'm hoping to get back to fic writing swing with this!

[littlebutfierce]

Yay, good luck w/the fic! It's been great that you've been doing so much writing this year, so hopefully switching back to fic won't be so hard b/c your writing brain is already warmed up!!