Fic Talk > General Discussion
New questions to ponder
RokofAges75:
I tend to divide my stories into two eras: pre-Broken and post-Broken. The pre-Broken stories are all pretty bad, but the one I'm least proud of is one of my oldies called "Silent Desperation." It's about Brian dealing with a painkiller addiction. I wrote it when I was 15 and way too naive to be writing a story about addiction LOL. It wasn't my idea; a friend suggested the drug addiction storyline and somehow talked me into writing it. I had no idea what I was talking about, and my attempts to do research only went as far as looking up drugs on my Encarta '95 CD-Rom, since I didn't have internet access in my bedroom back then. My naivety, combined with my lack of solid research, led to an embarrassingly bad story. If I cared enough to go back and make changes, I would do a lot more research and rewrite the entire thing with more detail and emotional depth. I don't care enough to go to that effort, but at least I learned something about the importance of researching before you write about issues you have no experience dealing with.
At the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm proud of all the stories I've posted since Broken, but I think the part of one of those stories that I'm least proud of is in By My Side when Claire leaves Nick. I knew I wanted them to break up in the middle (so I could get them back together in the end), but I sacrificed her character to do it in a dramatic, Siberia-inspired way ("When I came back, she wasn't there / just a note left on the stairs"). In real life, the strong, compassionate character I'd created would never have done something so cowardly and cruel, but I was obsessed with that song and wanted to work it into the story so badly. I should have just written a songfic to get it out of my system. If I were to go back and change it, I would still have them break up, but I would do it in a more mature, believable way that involved an actual, face-to-face conversation. That story taught me to let the characters drive the plot and not the other way around.
Rose:
Probably Just Another Day. Like everything I used to do wrong in writing first person, I did in that story LOL. I mixed up tenses, I let my characters go on too many tangents, I told rather than showed, etc. It's good it happened because it was the first fanfic I learned to focus on to the point where I wrapped up a fic (I wrote a lot of OF back then which I never had issues ending, fanfic I let my Writer's ADD get in the way). And it really helped me be more well rounded since I started it as a challenge to myself.
Actually I take it back. I learned a lot writing that one so, no regrets.
I checked my profile and there was a story called Rehab and omg there's so much wrong with that fic. I was in a mini romance phase decided to have a OC knocked up show up at Nick's door, start dating another guy, she was the epitome of an "Anti-Sue" and just awful all around. I eventually dropped it mainly cause I realized this as I wrote it LOL.
Sakabelle:
Oh man Rose, I remember Rehab. That was a long time ago!
As for my stories, I had to comb through my account on AC to remember what I'd written. I'm actually going to go with In Pieces which was the first fic of mine that people seemed to really like. That's crazy to me because just re-reading bits of it, it's a huge mess. It's basically about Nick falling in love with a fan, but instead of it happening in the crazy days of Backstreet it's a fan he had a fling with and then gets back together with in the Unbreakable era. I would alternate one chapter of past and one chapter of present... except I had a lot more present day story so about halfway through the past stuff is complete filler and a total teeny-story. I cringed so hard reading it. But Rose, like you said about your stories, I learned a lot with that one. Like how to properly incorporate a flashback! lol
For something more recent I have a 1D story that is entirely in 3rd person limited Harry's POV. Except there was this bit that I wanted to reveal to the readers a few chapters before Harry found out about it. So in the middle of this story there's one scene that switches to his sister's POV. It's so out of place and awkward and every time I think about it I get annoyed by it. I should have just let the reader be surprised with him.
Sakabelle:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 11, 2017, 08:09:18 PM ---At the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm proud of all the stories I've posted since Broken, but I think the part of one of those stories that I'm least proud of is in By My Side when Claire leaves Nick. I knew I wanted them to break up in the middle (so I could get them back together in the end), but I sacrificed her character to do it in a dramatic, Siberia-inspired way ("When I came back, she wasn't there / just a note left on the stairs").
--- End quote ---
I read BMS a long time ago but I do recall that even if this was out of character, as you said, it was justified well. I think Claire's reasoning for leaving and having it done in that way was sound. But I can definitely relate to the being inspired by something random and decided to work it into your current WIP even if it doesn't necessarily fit.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on May 11, 2017, 08:09:18 PM ---I tend to divide my stories into two eras: pre-Broken and post-Broken.
--- End quote ---
This made me think of another question. Does anyone else divide their "fanfic-career" like this? I guess the logical one for me is BSB fic and 1D fic.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: Sakabelle on May 14, 2017, 01:01:34 PM ---I would alternate one chapter of past and one chapter of present... except I had a lot more present day story so about halfway through the past stuff is complete filler and a total teeny-story. I cringed so hard reading it.
--- End quote ---
I love the idea of alternating between past and present, but that is such a challenge to pull off! I think any time you follow a strict format, whether it's alternating past/present or different POVs or whatever, it makes it that much harder to plan out because you lose some of the flexibility that comes with having ONE point of view, ONE timeline, and so on. That said, I think it's interesting to see different storylines (or different parts of the same storyline) interweaving throughout a story. I'm sure you did learn a lot from writing that one!
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