I thought it would be nice to have a new thread to talk about writing in (fanfic or otherwise). We can use this like the previous question threads, where people post questions to discuss, or just to talk about whatever comes up.
Since I know we have writers here who have come back to AC after long absences or writing slumps and others who aren't really writing fanfic these days, my first question is how has your writing changed over the years?
Personally, I write a lot slower than I used to. I blame social media. I get distracted a lot more easily than I used to in the days before Twitter LOL. On the plus side, I have learned to hang on to chapter for awhile instead of posting them right away, which means I end up revising a lot more than I ever used to. I'm also able to stick to a regular, weekly updating schedule instead of posting so sporadically. Genre-wise, I find myself writing more bromantic drama and horror these days and less romance than I used to. I may never write a het romance again. It's hard now that all five of the guys are married.
I wanted to respond to this too, but had to be excited for Mare first, haha.
I have some little author chats planned for my updates thread where I am planning on talking about this, but I'm happy to share here as well. I think it's like everyone on the Masked Singer says, "Being on the show brings me back to my love of performing when I was little." There was a long time where I had nothing creative in me at all. Whether that was BSB fanfics or some original stories, one of which has been popping around in my head since 2003! Over the years, I've had tiny bits where I try, but this is the first time something stuck. And then I think committing to writing every day kept it going. I hit one day in the middle of NaNo where I had no ideas on how to do the next chapter other than "there's going to be a Nick/Howie moment." I thought about writing nothing, but I decided to pop into PBox and do some editing instead (since the goal was just to write something, I figured editing counted). And then after editing for an evening, I did come up with what to do for the next chapter and I got an intro and then the rest spilled out over the next two days (though I had to take a major research break for part of it and that was both time consuming and heavy content-wise).
I think my biggest change has been holding on to things too and editing them. I looked back at some Author notes on PBox and was like: "PBox... this 3,000+ words/chapter juggernaut was on a Wednesday/Saturday update schedule every week?! How?!" No wonder I got burned out... My new schedule now is to make sure that anything I'm planning on posting in a week is completely written by the Sunday before I'm planning on posting it, then I don't look at it again until Tuesday and then I edit. So this week, I polished up PBox's ch. 11-20 and realized on Sunday that I hadn't even done a red pen edit on ch. 20 yet, so I had to finish it on Sunday. Then I looked through the others for a cursory edit and finally looked at it again yesterday. Tracking editing words is the worst because it will literally be the difference between "does" and "did" and I have to move that little "does" into a different document to count it. I have a whole other document that's just a jumble of "I I I he he does can is is is what the way he smiled don't not" etcetera. It's a nightmare, haha. But, I am excited to be able to post consistently for at least 24 weeks in a row! Once a week updating is awesome (though slightly nightmareish right now because of the added PBox editing).
I think I still like my same genres, AUs for life! But I agree with you on the romance thing, Julie. I think it's one thing to write about the Boys, but I've always hated involving their families in my writing because they're... "cursory celebrities" is the phrase I think I'm looking for... Like their wives just married a guy? And their kids just happened to be born? They didn't ask to be in a fanfic. I think I put Leighanne and Baylee in one story, a one-shot Halloween story I never finished, just because I needed some reason for Nick to be trick or treating in the beginning, but I definitely hated doing it. I think a romance for me would depend on the story. I think the only two old ideas/stories I'll ever possibly finish would be the PBox series and maybe Gobosei... But those ones have been floating around in my head for so long that at this point, they're all just characters to me and kind of separated from the Boys in my head (but not enough in story that I could "file off the serial numbers" and try to publish any of it, unfortunately). Any of the newer ideas I've had all fall into the "let's be nostalgic for when you didn't have to mention real life significant others" or "out and about where you could have a plot with only a cursory mention of their families if even necessary." 100% team Bromance.
Also, Julie, remember when you were like "I don't think I could write anything but romance?" Horror is pretty different, haha.
