Fic Talk > General Discussion
The Writing Thread: Orlando Passaggio (aka The Writing Thread 3)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on March 11, 2021, 05:36:21 PM ---I posted It Stays as I was writing it. I was one of the first posters on this site before it became open to everyone. Actually before I even had my own site. Although I’m not sure if the review button was a thing right away or not. It’s funny but I don’t really consider It Stays as one of my older fics but I guess maybe it is.
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It's crazy how quickly time passes. I guess in the scheme of things, it is one of your older stories, even though it doesn't seem like it's been that long. I still only consider my "old" stories to be pre-Broken, even though Broken itself is now 18 years old. I just had to check my math on that because how can that be??? But I started it in 2003, and yep, that was 18 years ago. WTF LOL.
--- Quote from: mare on March 11, 2021, 05:36:21 PM ---I’m glad you feel that way about Hope. I’m proud of that one too. The villain in that one was my favorite original character to write, even though I can’t remember his name right now lol
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Tim! He's one of my favorite original characters in BSB fanfic too. He was such a creep, yet you wrote him a sympathetic way that made me understand him and even feel a little sorry for him, even though I was rooting against him.
I actually just reread some of Hope last year for inspiration as I was writing The Road to Bethlehem. No villains like Tim in my story, but I was inspired by the bromance and getting-injured-and-stranded-in-the-woods element.
--- Quote from: mare on March 11, 2021, 05:36:21 PM ---And yes indeed, one can’t have a medical drama without cancer or a bus crash. Bonus points for also using a bus crash for suspense as well!
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LOL Didn't we have a conversation in one of the threads referenced in the MIA nostalgia thread about a teenybopper story where the villain kidnapped the boys by causing a bus crash and then diagnosed Nick's cancer? Kidnapping, crashes, and cancer - the holy trinity of BSB fanfic tropes LOL.
RokofAges75:
Are there any aspects of writing you seem to have trouble with? I am generally pretty good with spelling and grammar, but one thing I've noticed about myself is I often want to make compound words out of terms that are really two separate words, like "seat belt" and "light switch." I always write "seatbelt," and I just caught a "lightswitch" in the last sentence of the last chapter I finished. Sometimes Google Docs corrects me, and sometimes it doesn't, so I have to look it up if I'm not sure if it should be one word or two. I also struggle to spell the word "fluorescent" correctly on the first try, although I got it this time - maybe I've finally committed that one to memory LOL. I tend to use it a lot when describing the lighting in my hospital scenes, so it always bugs me when it takes me more than one try to get it right.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 10, 2021, 10:06:02 PM ---I commend you for doing it with PBox! Do you think it helped knowing the original version of PBox was already finished, so even if you didn't finish rewriting it, you at least had the old version to fall back on?
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Not necessarily! I knew going into PNecklace that I did want to edit some stuff from it and once I got going, I was ready to just keep going and finish it out. :) My only real hangup was the time restraints plus life that I put on myself. Once I relaxed the "10 chapters a week" business, I was happy as a clam to keep going and I think it's better for having received the edit. I think what helped keep me motivated (other than it being my deepest love) was the parameters I set in the beginning: the plot of the whole novel and each individual chapter stays the same. So I wasn't completely scrapping anything, I was just tweaking it (sometimes with a hack and slash, sometimes with minor changes, sometimes with just removing unnecessary dialogue tags).
Now taking the fanfic out of it... That is a much slower and more arduous process!
I have realized that I did some improper commas in my edit and found some typos I still missed, but have been less motivated to go back and fix them than I was motivated to do the initial edit; I keep noticing them and hating them when I go back and reference things, haha! I think if I can get myself back up to 15 or 20 chapters ahead on PNecklace, I might give myself two weeks to go back and fix those.
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 10, 2021, 10:06:02 PM ---I don't think being Howie is bad at all. Howie definitely flies under the radar, which can be a good thing. Stealth D!
LOL You're either 90s Nick or Brian in any decade. "Cute tiny one" describes him too. After all, he does resemble a small gnome.
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Yes! Stealth D!
lmao Just put him in a gnome hat, I hear they're essential workers! ;) I'd rather be early 90's Nick, because in that world, Brian is the heartthrob and I still get to grow up and become a heartthrob myself. Everyone wins!
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 10, 2021, 10:06:02 PM ---It is a fun pattern! This is the third novel I've written this way, alternating chapters in two different first person POVs. It's a nice way to tell a story that has two main characters and keep it balanced between both perspectives, but it can be limiting in situations like this, when one character has a lot more to say than the other.
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What's the deciding factor in writing a story with alternating first person POVs as opposed to third person?
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: mare on March 11, 2021, 03:16:31 PM ---2. Have you ever written a fanfic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?
Several. It’s hard to be a suspense writer without using the same plot as other people. The very first fanfic I’d ever written was Nick gets kidnapped after reading Ground Zero by Chaos. It didn’t really effect my writing process at all because I was just starting my writing process. I’m pretty sure the only thing the two had in common was Nick gets kidnapped. We totally told different versions of that same idea. His was much better than mine. After that I’ve used several of the same plot ideas and never felt like I was copying from anyone.
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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 11, 2021, 05:08:16 PM ---I agree with this, and the same is probably true of medical drama. Every suspense writer needs at least one kidnapping story, just as every medical drama writer needs at least one cancer story. No two are exactly the same though. These are both tropes I could (and have) read over and over again, so the more the better!
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--- Quote from: mare on March 11, 2021, 05:36:21 PM ---And yes indeed, one can’t have a medical drama without cancer or a bus crash. Bonus points for also using a bus crash for suspense as well!
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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 11, 2021, 06:02:59 PM ---LOL Didn't we have a conversation in one of the threads referenced in the MIA nostalgia thread about a teenybopper story where the villain kidnapped the boys by causing a bus crash and then diagnosed Nick's cancer? Kidnapping, crashes, and cancer - the holy trinity of BSB fanfic tropes LOL.
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Isn't there an argument out there that at their cores "there are no new stories"? I feel like as long as enough of it's different and you know going in what elements you'll change to make yours unique, then let's get hundred of BSB fanfics about kidnappings and cancer! ;D
I'll reiterate again that a bus crash is a perfect story catalyst for any BSB fanfic! And we've all probably used it at one point or another. #Team bring back bus crash stories!
And yes, we did talk about a teenybopper story like that. I wish I remembered what it was; that was so long ago.
nicksgal:
--- Quote from: mare on March 11, 2021, 03:51:16 PM ---10. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?
I don’t think there’s any way to get them all perfectly right but I’m pretty sure I screw up Kevin the most. I’m sure he’s really not as overly protective and responsible and fun lacking as how I tended to portray him.
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--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on March 11, 2021, 05:08:16 PM ---I think we all tend to portray Kevin this way and have probably reinforced that depiction of him by reading each other's work over the years LOL. I think some of that came from actually seeing him in action during appearances and interviews, and the rest came from our interpretation of his big brother role. The famous stories like him breaking down AJ's door and giving Nick that self-help book definitely lend credence to that, but then we hear other stuff about him that is surprising, like that he is hard to wake up in the morning and is late a lot. That doesn't go with my vision of Kevin as always being punctual because he's such a stickler. But it does go to show that real people are complex and multifaceted and don't fit the tropes as easily as fictional characters. I also think Kevin has mellowed over the years and was more this way in the early days, when he was an adult dealing with teenagers. The age/maturity gap made more of a difference in the group dynamic back then.
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People who are sticklers like sleeping in too! Maybe Kevin's a stickler about everything except for time... Or realistically, he says "I'm the one who is late and you all know this. If you are noticeably later than me, then that's clearly a glaring problem."
I think age/maturity for sure has a lot to do with it. He had to come off as more responsible when dealing with teenagers and now he can relax a little more when he doesn't have to wrangle the forty-somethings.
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