Fic Talk > General Discussion
2 Writing 2 Thread
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 06, 2021, 10:21:50 AM ---I have also been trying and failing to come up with discussion topics.
--- End quote ---
I actually panicked and thought "Have we run out of things to talk about? Oh no!"
And then I started going through every literary thing I knew. Did we talk about themes and motifs yet? Would anyone talk about those without considering them spoilers? Conflicts? Heroes vs villains? And every stupid question I could think of. What line spacing do we use when writing? How productive is everyone with a few cocktails? Long sleeves or sweatshirts? Hair up or down? And questions about the Boys. Who gets the most sympathy in a story? Who's most likely to be evil if one of them needs to be evil? When will there be a Howie trend?
And then I thought "Well, I guess it's better to have no ideas for discussion questions than no ideas for writing. Maybe everyone's just busy writing."
The typical weekend question still stands: How's it going for everyone?
Also, April Camp NaNo is coming up if anyone wanted to hang out in the writing group I made for July's Camp and set some April goals. Our writing group is also missing a header and an icon if anyone's feeling creative. ;)
nicksgal:
1. Of the fics you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?
Am I the right person to answer these? Because it's clearly PBox. I have nothing new to say, haha.
2. Which scene was your favorite to write in PBox?
Let's see... I've long professed my love of the ch. 43 ("Wishes")/44 ("Disciple") chunk. Ch. 33 "Abyss" was always one of my favorites too. Thinking over the edit I did, there's a couple that I really enjoyed adding or adding to, like a bunch of expansions to the early Nick & Brian banter and some of the rewrites I did in the end for the individual Boy-focused chapters and the ending battle scenes. I'm trying to think of anything I'd post a snippet from, that wouldn't delve into too spoilery territory... Apparently, I'm totally fine just stating things as facts that are spoilers, but posting sections, I'm not. Weird. Oh, I know two:
* Chapter Eleven: To Emeradotouhou: Nick and Minako play this game they've dubbed "you ask, I answer" and the whole scene was fun to add to their little bond. While there's some emotionally heavy stuff, the gem from the first instance of it is:
--- Quote ---She smiled. “My turn…”
“Minako, I really don’t remember…”
“You have wings, so I’m assuming you can fly. How do you know how to ride a horse if you could just fly?”
Nick was silent for a moment as he pulled the horse’s reins and walked it in a circle until it came to a stop.
“Unless you can’t fly?”
Nick’s shoulders shook.
Minako gripped his chest. “Nick… Are you…?”
It was quiet at first, but rather than the crying she expected, she was interrupted by his laughter. As he continued to laugh, he leaned his head down and the sound grew louder, purer, and more joyful.
--- End quote ---
* Chapter Twenty-Three: Connected: There's a new part at the beginning that I wrote mostly to add some lightheartedne ss into the increasingly dark story. I'm apparently mostly sharing "things that make me laugh, but everyone else probably doesn't care about. So here's some snippets of the "Priestess of Cats" section and "Kevin discusses salves."
--- Quote ---He let go of Minako’s hand and raised his finger in the air. “Ah! While you and Nick were away we received a report of missing livestock. While most were found in various fields, a kitten proved rather elusive. It was eventually found at the palace near the quarters you had been using. A lady’s maid called out that it was a kitten, however, one of the nobles thought it was Nick yelling at you and remarked that he was ‘rather rude to shout at Her Eminence’.”
Minako squeezed Nick’s hand as she giggled.
Nick continued to smile at her gently. Wait… a kitten… He frowned in confusion. “I wouldn’t yell at Minako…”
Minako leaned against him and continued to laugh. Brian also began laughing heartily. Howie and Kevin began laughing shortly afterward.
Nick crossed his arms. “...Anymore…” He hunched his shoulders and mumbled. “Also why would I call her a kitten?”
The others continued to laugh loudly until Howie cleared his throat.
“The kitten, of course, was returned to its residence with esteemed honors and deemed a savior from mice.”
Minako continued giggling. “I’m glad you found the priestess of cats, Howie.”
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---He smiled. “In addition to using demonic healing methods, I am trained in human healing methods, so I like to practice making medicines and salves.”
“Salves?” Minako cocked her head.
“Medicinal ointments.” He reached into his tunic and pulled out a small container then pulled off its lid. “They help soothe wounds as they heal and disinfect.” He held it out to Minako and Nick.
Minako sniffed it hesitantly as Nick tore his hand from hers and hurriedly covered his nose and mouth with both hands as he hunched into himself.
“Yes, it’s quite potent if you’re not used to it.” Kevin chuckled as he closed the container again.
“It’s not that bad.” Minako frowned. “What’s in there? Honey?”
He smiled. “Beeswax and honey are two of the main ingredients, Minako, very perceptive. Demons have a keen sense of smell compared to humans, so what you’re smelling is the combination of the ingredients with the stronger scents more detectable. What Nick’s smelling is the combination of ingredients, the individual ingredients, and possibly traces of my scent from making it.”
Minako continued to frown, her gaze fixed on Kevin. “Do you all smell different from each other?”
He nodded as he put the container back inside his tunic. “A little. Demons with different powers will smell different. The more similar two demons are, the more they smell the same.”
--- End quote ---
3. Which part of PBox was hardest to write?
Ooh, we're back to "I have nothing new to say." The end, because of all the death... But especially Brian's. Spoilers as facts! That was a long six month hiatus from writing PBox.
4. If you could change anything in PBox, what would it be?
Well, considering a did an overhaul edit, lots of things! But for the story as is, I did not remove anything that was already there unless I replaced it with something else that had a similar basic structure and intent to the original. Even the sections with larger overhauls, the premise of what happens stayed the same, even if the words changed or expanded.
In the OF version of it, there's even more hack and slash, but two big things stand out. First, there are portions where one chapter ends and another begins with different viewpoints on the same event. I call this an unfortunate product of posting as a serial and have plans to either combine these sections into one chapter or do away with the less interesting one entirely. The other major change is where the story starts, which is Ch. 2 "The Hidden Demon." Since, as you know, somewhere along the way someone decided that it was his story most of all. And if it's Nick's story, he should probably be in the first chapter. It's honestly probably where I would start it from now anyway, but as I said above, chapter-to-chapter the premise remains the same after the overhaul edit.
5. Did you make an outline for PBox? Did you stick to it?
Nope! Not until the end when I had very specific plans. Then we all got to enjoy the staying power of "Kevin's power to heal is awesome. Also there's plants." Which is obviously a great outline. I know everyone's feelings on "I suck at summaries, lol," but how does everyone feel about "I suck at outlines, lol"? Because, yup.
6. Which scenes did you cut, and which were added in PBox?
I feel like these questions assume that major revisions happen before these fanfics are posted at all, haha. I cut nothing in the original run! Everything I wrote continued to exist. I'd call the edit more "cut and replace plus add" so on a scene level, a lot of things ended up very different than the original version (even the ch. 1-9 edits I did way back when).
Added... most of ch. 10 is pretty different in the details, ch. 11 got that aforementioned "you ask, I answer" game, ch. 12 got Minako focusing on Nick/Nick focusing on Minako/more Brian that it didn't have before, ch. 13 got more Nick & Brian goodness, ch. 23 got a whole BSB focused scene added (which you saw some snippets of)... Those are the bigger ones I can think of, but every chapter changed in some way during the edit.
7. Who was your favorite character to write in PBox?
Oh look, another question where I feel that I have nothing new to contribute. You're still my favorite, Nick.
8. Which came first, the title or the fic?
Both concurrently? It definitely had a title before I finished writing it, but the idea came before the title.
9. Which idea came to you first in PBox?
Nothing that actually ended up in the narrative, but the image of demon Nick carrying a girl and a box feels like it would be from the end of the story?
10. What are some facts readers may not know about PBox?
I already shared my "why Nick doesn't wear shoes" fun fact and I've talked about so many things in my updates thread or this one that would be things worth mentioning. Anything else I can think of feels like it would spoil PNecklace, so... I literally can't think of anything.
I think Howie's individual chapter (ch. 34) was the first one I wrote on my first laptop. Everything prior to that was written on ancient desktop that I still have the tower from. You know, just in case I ever want to figure out how to rescue all the old fanfics on it. But that's a pretty boring fact?
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on March 06, 2021, 05:58:13 PM ---I actually panicked and thought "Have we run out of things to talk about? Oh no!"
And then I started going through every literary thing I knew. Did we talk about themes and motifs yet? Would anyone talk about those without considering them spoilers? Conflicts? Heroes vs villains?
--- End quote ---
Those could all be good topics if you want to turn them into questions.
As for your "stupid" ones...
What line spacing do we use when writing?
1.15 (Google Doc's default)
How productive is everyone with a few cocktails?
Usually not. I will occasionally have a drink while writing, but alcohol tends to make me sleepy. I'm much more productive with caffeine.
Long sleeves or sweatshirts?
Sweatshirts in winter, t-shirts in summer.
Hair up or down?
Down - mine's usually too short to pull up.
Who gets the most sympathy in a story?
Nick... because he's usually most in need of sympathy from us torturing him so much.
Who's most likely to be evil if one of them needs to be evil?
Hm... I really haven't read many stories where one of them is evil, but it seems like it would be Howie or Brian - the sweet ones, the ones you'd least suspect.
When will there be a Howie trend?
At this point, probably never. Sorry, Howie.
The typical weekend question still stands: How's it going for everyone?
Pretty good! I worked on Chapter 6 of My Brother's Keeper this morning and am back to working on it again. I've basically finished rewriting the parts I needed to rewrite and piecing in the parts from the old version I still wanted to use, so I'm finally ready to move the story forward, which is exciting after being stuck in the same place for three years.
How's it going for you, Dee?
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 06, 2021, 07:21:00 PM ---As for your "stupid" ones...
--- End quote ---
"Random" is probably a better word than "stupid", but line spacing is much less interesting than font choice, haha.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 06, 2021, 07:21:00 PM ---Who gets the most sympathy in a story?
Nick... because he's usually most in need of sympathy from us torturing him so much.
Who's most likely to be evil if one of them needs to be evil?
Hm... I really haven't read many stories where one of them is evil, but it seems like it would be Howie or Brian - the sweet ones, the ones you'd least suspect.
When will there be a Howie trend?
At this point, probably never. Sorry, Howie.
--- End quote ---
It's true, Nick is the king of uneven sympathy.
I feel like Howie usually ends up evil? Unless I'm projecting 00Carter on everything else I vaguely remember? Maybe "evil Howie" is the new trend. ;)
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 06, 2021, 07:21:00 PM ---The typical weekend question still stands: How's it going for everyone?
Pretty good! I worked on Chapter 6 of My Brother's Keeper this morning and am back to working on it again. I've basically finished rewriting the parts I needed to rewrite and piecing in the parts from the old version I still wanted to use, so I'm finally ready to move the story forward, which is exciting after being stuck in the same place for three years.
How's it going for you, Dee?
--- End quote ---
Morning and evening working? That is productive writing! That's great that you were able to utilize parts you'd already written and cut. And now you get to keep going. Getting unstuck after so many years is a wonderful feeling, no?
I finished ch. 28, have a general idea of what needs to happen in ch. 29, then it looks like it might be time to work in my next chunk of "interesting bits." After that, I have a loose plan for the last 20ish chapters (depending on how much chapter space those pre-written interesting bits take), so it feels kind of like winding down. I even have the last line of the story planned. But also not winding down at all because then I already have pieces of the final book written.
Outside of PNecklace, over the past week and a half, I wrote the first two scenes of Death by Snail.
In general, I've had a productive day. Did some laundry, did some cleaning, exercised, wrote. I think I'm happy it's semi-consistently warm again, haha.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: nicksgal on March 06, 2021, 07:10:44 PM ---1. Of the fics you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?
Am I the right person to answer these? Because it's clearly PBox. I have nothing new to say, haha.
--- End quote ---
LOL You're the perfect person to answer these because they're designed to all be about one story, and of course you would pick PBox.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on March 06, 2021, 07:10:44 PM ---I'm apparently mostly sharing "things that make me laugh, but everyone else probably doesn't care about. So here's some snippets of the "Priestess of Cats" section and "Kevin discusses salves."
--- End quote ---
The first two snippets you shared were cute! The third one made me think of the scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when they're smelling the love potion in Potions class, and it smells different to each person depending on what they're most attracted to. I was waiting for a description of what each demon Backstreet Boy smells like LOL.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on March 06, 2021, 07:10:44 PM ---I know everyone's feelings on "I suck at summaries, lol," but how does everyone feel about "I suck at outlines, lol"? Because, yup.
--- End quote ---
LOL Even as an outline person, I think it's okay to suck at outlines or not need to use them at all. No one else sees that part, so no one else would even know. Whereas "I suck at summaries" makes it look like you're not only flying by the seat of your pants, but you also have no idea which direction you're going.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on March 06, 2021, 07:10:44 PM ---I feel like these questions assume that major revisions happen before these fanfics are posted at all, haha. I cut nothing in the original run! Everything I wrote continued to exist. I'd call the edit more "cut and replace plus add" so on a scene level, a lot of things ended up very different than the original version (even the ch. 1-9 edits I did way back when).
--- End quote ---
Yeah, I thought that was pretty presumptuous of the questions too, considering most fanfics - at least in our fandom - don't seem to undergo major revisions before being posted. Your overhaul of PBox is the exception rather than the rule. We're lucky if people even bother to proofread before posting LOL. I wonder if that's different in other fandoms?
--- Quote from: nicksgal on March 06, 2021, 07:10:44 PM ---8. Which came first, the title or the fic?
Both concurrently? It definitely had a title before I finished writing it, but the idea came before the title.
--- End quote ---
This makes me wonder if anyone actually comes up with a title first and then creates a story idea to go with it... or if anyone writes an entire story before finalizing the title.
--- Quote from: nicksgal on March 06, 2021, 07:10:44 PM ---I think Howie's individual chapter (ch. 34) was the first one I wrote on my first laptop. Everything prior to that was written on ancient desktop that I still have the tower from. You know, just in case I ever want to figure out how to rescue all the old fanfics on it. But that's a pretty boring fact?
--- End quote ---
I just got a new desktop computer for Christmas and saved my old one too. It still has videos on it that wouldn't fit on my new hard drive because apparently the old one held a lot more. I bought a two-sided USB cord that will connect the two to transfer files, but I haven't tried it yet. That may be an option for rescuing your fanfics if the old computer still works.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version